A former Lloydminster, Sask. farmer last week pleaded guilty to getting $223,000 in advance payments in 1990 for grain he never had.
Frank Keichinger was sentenced to a year in jail, to be served concurrently with a seven-year sentence he’s already serving for a sexual offence.
Keichinger fraudulently obtained cash advances and ran into trouble when his crops failed and he was unable to deliver grain to cover what he owed, prosecutor Dennis Cann said. Cash advances are provided for grain that is already in the bin.
After the crop failure, Keichinger went bankrupt and no longer farms.
The Canadian Wheat Board oversees cash advances, but if farmers default on repayments, the board doesn’t pay the bill, said board spokesperson Norm Cobb.
The cash advance program is a federal government responsibility that is administered by the board. The government guarantees the advances, and any losses come from the government directly, not from the board.
