YANKTON, S.D. (WNAX) — Members of the Steffensen family, former owners of H & I Grain, were sentenced in Beadle County Circuit Court last week following their convictions on fraud charges.
Jared and Tami Steffenson, along with Jared’s mother JoAnn were charged with defrauding a number of producers who sold grain to them.
The case was initially pursued by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.
“It’s a tragic situation all the way around,” commission chair Chris Nelson said. “It’s certainly tragic for the farmers that lost dollars for the grain that they sold, and then obviously we have a family that, because of their own doing, really devastated their family and their legacy.”
Nelson said the Steffensons violated a statute requiring grain buyers to notify the Public Utilities Commission when they fall into financial difficulty. He said the Steffensons “did everything they could to hide their situation from the PUC.”
Jared and Tami Steffenson were sentenced to five years in prison. JoAnn Steffenson was sentenced to probation. All are
required to pay back a total of nearly five million dollars.
Nelson says he believes state law is adequate to handle these
type of fraud cases.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed this report.)
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