The daughter of one of four sisters indicted in a farm program fraud scheme that rerouted more than $11.5 million intended to benefit farmers who had been discriminated against pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court for her part in the fraud and faces as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Niki Charles, 49, of England entered the plea Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud that was contained in superseding information before Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. In exchange, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron McCree moved for dismissal of the original indictment, which charged Charles with eight counts of aiding and abetting mail fraud.
In 1997, a group of Black farmers filed a class-action lawsuit alleging they had been discriminated against when they applied for farm credit, credit servicing or farm benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A similar lawsuit alleged that Hispanic and female farmers also experienced discrimination in USDA farm benefit programs.
Both lawsuits were settled and resulted in a claims process where farmers could make claims for financial relief by showing they had applied for participation in a USDA benefit program and had been denied. Successful claims resulted in an award of $62,500. Of that, $50,000 would be made payable to the claimant, and $12,500 would be transferred directly to the IRS as a tax withholding.
In court Tuesday, Charles admitted to notarizing statements illegally as part of the fraud, attesting to the validity of the signatures of individuals verifying claim applications for farmers when those individuals whose signatures were the basis for the claim verifications were not present.
Lynda Charles of Hot Springs, the 72-year-old mother of Niki Charles, and her sisters Rosie Bryant, 74, of Colleyville Texas; Delois Bryant, 75, of North Little Rock; and Brenda Sherpell, 72, of Gainesville, Texas, pleaded guilty last month in front of Marshall. As part of their agreements, the sisters pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.
A fifth defendant in the case, Jerry Green, 42, of Grand Prairie, Texas, pleaded guilty in January 2021 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A sixth defendant, Little Rock attorney Everett Martindale, is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 30 before Marshall on eight counts of aiding and abetting mail fraud.