Last month (August, 2019), U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Missouri farmer Randy Constant to 10 years in prison in what is reportedly the largest organic food fraud scheme in U.S. history. Judge Williams gave shorter prison terms to three Overton, Nebraska, farmers whom Constant recruited to join the scheme. According to the Associated Press: "The farmers reaped more than $120 million in proceeds from sales of the tainted grain. The scheme may have involved up to 7 percent of organic corn grown in the U.S. in 2016 and 8 percent of the organic soybeans, prosecutors said. 'Thousands upon thousands of consumers paid for products they did not get and paid for products they did not want,' Williams said. 'This has caused incalculable damage to the confidence the American public has in organic products.' Williams said the scam harmed other organic farmers who were playing by the rules but could not compete with the low prices offered by Constant’s Iowa-based grain brokerage, and middlemen who unknowingly purchased and marketed tainted organic grain." Randy Constant reportedly never showed up to serve his prison term, but committed suicide instead.

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