NEED TO KNOW
Steven McBee Sr. is on the federal court’s time.
After pleading guilty to a multi-million dollar fraud scheme, the McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys star, 52, has been ordered to turn over some pricey belongings. According to documents obtained by PEOPLE, McBee must relinquish three of his designer watches while he awaits sentencing.
The order cites a U.S. code allowing a court to seek forfeiture “of all property, real and personal, constituting, or derived from, proceeds traceable to the offenses, directly or indirectly, as a result of the violations alleged.” Per the filing, “The United States has located assets belonging to the defendant Steve A. McBee that were not directly obtained through the offenses alleged in the Information.”
The watches set to be collected from McBee include one Tag Heuer Formula 1 watch, a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera watch and a Rolex Daytona watch “as substitute assets in partial satisfaction of the money judgement” he owes.
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This came days after the court delayed the owner of McBee Farming Operations’ sentencing for the fourth time.
McBee, who is facing up to 30 years in prison, was originally given a sentencing date in March before being pushed to June and then September. It has most recently been rescheduled for October.
McBee pleaded guilty to falsifying documents for unauthorized federal crop insurance benefits in November 2024 after waiving his right to a grand jury.
According to the DOJ press release, his guilty plea serves as an admission that he “engaged in fraudulent activity from 2018 to 2020 that caused an economic loss to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
The DOJ further claimed that the government’s total loss was $4,022,123, additionally requiring McBee to forfeit $3,158,923 in restitution.
The press release also stated that the television personality admitted to making a false report to Rain and Hail, a company reinsured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.
He later allegedly confessed to sending “fraudulent documents to Rain and Hail that underreported his total 2018 corn crop by approximately 674,812 bushels and underreported his total 2018 soybean crop by approximately 155,833 bushels,” the press release stated. This allowed McBee to receive $2,605,943 in federal crop insurance benefits and $552,980 in federal crop insurance premium subsidies.
While his crop insurance records for 2018 indicated that he produced 340,476 bushels of corn and 190,171 bushels of soybeans, he allegedly acknowledged that his company sold more than 1.2 million bushels of corn and nearly 416,000 bushels of soybeans to another party.
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The following year, McBee falsified information provided to his insurance company about the company’s soybean crop again.
Then, in 2020, McBee “provided false information when he obtained crop insurance through NAU Country Insurance in 2020,” according to the DOJ.
Moreover, he falsely reported planting dates to make his crops eligible for insurance. McBee also admitted to committing additional fraud in 2019 and 2020.
