Breeder sentenced to prison for fraud

Judge CJ Williams sentenced Robert Harry Bickerstaff, 52, of Rock Rapids, to six months in prison on one count of wire fraud during a June 24 hearing in U.S. District Court for Northern Iowa.

Bickerstaff is the fifth Lynch Livestock executive to plead guilty to charges in the case.

Bickerstaff was a regional manager for Lynch, a Waucoma-based company, and a pork producer himself. He holds a degree in agribusiness and won the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s 2022 “Hog Wild” award for his role in promoting pork in Lyon County.

In Lynch, Bickerstaff supervised cattle buying stations in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, and he sometimes personally graded and weighed hogs at these stations.

The company had been investigated by government regulators in the past for manipulating livestock weights and classifications and was the subject of a 2017 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Prosecutors allege that Bickerstaff ordered buying station personnel between 2018 and 2021 to reduce the grades of hogs that producers and vendors delivered, manipulate electronic scales with crowbars, and create fraudulent “sort sheets” and scale tickets.

This meant that Lynch Livestock was paying sellers less than they were owed.

When Bickerstaff learned of a possible investigation in 2021, he instructed staff to destroy reports bearing his name. He also emailed the company’s owner to inform him that he had met with the company’s attorney.

“I told him about certain practices that had been implemented in some of my positions that dated back to (another manager's) time. Some of these practices were implemented to keep margins at the level expected by the company. I am not proud of not having changed these practices sooner, but I cannot undo my past mistakes,” the email reads, according to court documents. He resigned a few days later.

In February 2023, the company, now known as Lynch Family Companies, was sentenced to five years of probation, fined $196,000 and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution for failing to comply with an order from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture as part of a plea agreement.

Others charged in the investigation include:

• Billie Joe Wickham, of Waucoma, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to six months in prison and a $3,000 fine.
• Charlie Lynch, of Fort Atkinson, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, sentenced to five years of probation and a $3,000 fine.
• Leland “Pete” Blue, of Fredericksburg, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, sentenced to five years of probation and a $1,000 fine.
• Tyler Thoms, of Fayette, pleaded guilty to one count of causing a livestock dealer to keep inaccurate records and was sentenced to one year of probation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Vavricek and investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.