CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - Federal prosecutors in eastern Iowa have announced prison sentences for two farmers convicted in separate cases.
Prosecutors say 36-year-old David Pitz, of Elma in northeastern Iowa, has been sentenced to 10 months behind bars for using his more than $117,000 in farm profits for personal expenses instead of paying off his U.S. Department of Agriculture-backed loan. Pitz pleaded guilty in April to a count of conversion of property pledged to a farm credit agency.
In a separate case, 36-year-old Mark Laubenthal, of Bancroft in northern Iowa, has been sentenced to a year in prison for lying to his bank about how much land he was farming and how much crop he had in storage in order to secure a loan.
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Laubenthal pleaded guilty in March to one count of making a false statement to a bank.
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