(Sioux City)– A Rock Rapids man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a case that defrauded pork producers. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa says 52-year-old Robert Bickerstaff entered the plea last week in U.S. District Court in Sioux City.
At a plea hearing, Bickerstaff admitted he had worked as a regional manager for an Iowa livestock dealer between 2018 and and 2021, overseeing buying stations in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Bickerstaff admitted he participated in a scheme directing others to falsely and fraudulently lower the weights and reduce the numbers and classifications of swine that producers and sellers had delivered to the dealer at its buyer stations and that he manipulated the weights. He also admitted to creating fraudulent “sort sheets” and scale tickets.
In addition to working for the livestock dealer, Bickerstaff was a pork producer himself.
Sentencing is pending completion of a pre-sentence report. He remains free on bond. Bickerstaff faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 find and three years of supervised probation following any imprisonment.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, and the FBI.
