Scott County cattle farmer pleads guilty to COVID-19 fraud

Date: July 9, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Lexington, KY — A Georgetown, Ky., man, Robert Conley, has pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell to providing a criminally false claim in order to obtain COVID relief funds.

In 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, established many programs that were funded primarily by the federal government and administered by state workforce agencies. One of the programs provided support to farmers and ranchers through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). CFAP provided financial assistance to producers of agricultural commodities with financial assistance for sales losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The USDA’s Farm Service Agency administered the program. CFAP applicants electronically certified that the information provided was accurate and were warned that any false statement or misrepresentation to the USDA or any misapplication of loan proceeds could result in sanctions, including criminal penalties.

Conley is a buyer and seller of cattle in Georgetown and is also part owner of Paris Stockyards in Paris, Ky. According to Conley’s plea agreement, on May 26, 2020, and on Sept. 29, 2020, he filed two CFAP applications. In additional to the two legitimate applications, Conley directed and caused four individuals to unwittingly submit false CFAP applications claiming they owned 20% of Conley’s cattle. At Conley’s direction, the four individuals received a total of $1,206,539.80 in CFAP funds, which they remitted back to Conley.

Additionally, Conley caused the submission of three false applications under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), claiming three of the individuals had payroll expenses associated with Conley’s cattle operation. As a result of those false PPP applications, another $72,660 was fraudulently obtained.

Paul McCaffrey, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigations, Cincinnati Field Division; and Janet M. Sorensen, Acting Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by the IRS and USDA-OIG. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Smith is prosecuting the matter on behalf of the United States.

Conley is scheduled to appear for sentencing on October 9, 2025. He faces a maximum of 5 years in prison. However, the Court must consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the applicable federal sentencing statutes before imposing its sentence.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.