Northeast Iowa Farmers Plead Guilty to Bankruptcy Fraud
Three members of a Chickasaw County family are facing federal charges for various charges.
The Rosenbaum’s received double federal loans on their farmland before declaring bankruptcy. Now they are facing charges of bankruptcy fraud.
Aimee Rosenbaum of Lawler pleaded guilty to the conversion of property pledged to a farm credit agency and bankruptcy fraud. She was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and has to pay $165,592.21 in restitution along with some $12,000 in fines and attorney fees.
Her husband, Donald Rosenbaum of Cresco received two years of probation and a $1,000 fine for pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud. Their son Marshal Rosenbaum was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement as well as a $165,592.21 in restitution — after pleading guilty to the conversion of property pledged to a farm credit agency.
In the plea agreements, it was established that Aimee had Marshal apply for the USDA crop loan in 2014 under the pretense Marshal would take over their farm due to health problems that both Aimee and Donald were facing.
After Marshal received the $165,000 loan, Aimee applied for and obtained over $1.3 million in loans in 2015 under the pretense that Aimee and Donald would continue to farm the land. What the USDA or bank also didn’t know was the 2015 crop was also double-pledged to other companies.
Aimee also applied for the bank loans on Donald’s Behalf using the power of attorney she obtained from Donald.
Both loans defaulted with little to no repayment.
After foreclosure proceedings started, the Rosenbaum’s filed five bankruptcy petitions to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Aimee and Donald filed two more in bad faith on the eve of their scheduled Sheriff’s sales in state court to try to delay any attempts by the bank to obtain repayment.
The family was sentenced in Cedar Rapids.