Burnell
Gabriel Zachary, the owner of a livestock business in Louisiana, has pleaded
guilty to stealing more than $76,000 from a federal aid program to help
compensate farmers and ranchers for losses from the coronavirus pandemic.

According
to court documents, the 37-year-old Zachary pleaded guilty to one count of
theft from the United States government on Tuesday and agreed to repay $76,274
as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in Lafayette.

Zachary is
a resident of Arnaudville in south-central Louisiana. He falsely claimed that
the pandemic caused significant losses for his livestock business, Zachary’s
Ranch, LLC, and consequently received three payments in July and August 2020,
according to the court documents reported by the Associated Press.

Zachary
faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing. His
sentencing date has not been set until now.

The money
Zachary received came from a $16 billion federal program to help farmers and
ranchers who lost money because of COVID-19 or the supply chain disruptions it
caused, according to the documents.

“COVID-19
fraud is one of the top priorities of this office” because it takes money
from people who really need it, Acting US Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said
in a news release.

The US
Department of Agriculture’s “COVID-19 food assistance programs were meant
to keep food on tables during this unprecedented time,” the Associated
Press quoted Dax Roberson, special agent in charge of USDA’s inspector
general’s office, which investigated the case, as saying through a news release.

“This
prosecution should send a strong zero-tolerance message to those opportunistic
fraudsters who would take advantage of a national emergency to enrich
themselves,” the news release from Roberson added.