The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Dena J. King, said that a man from North Carolina pleaded guilty on Friday to a conspiracy charge related to his part in a $1 million horse theft scam.
Michael William Dalton Edwards, 25, of Mount Airy, was freed on bond and will be punished later.
King said that plea papers and the plea hearing showed that Edwards worked with someone else to scam livestock markets, which are also called sales barns, in Iredell and Cleveland counties, North Carolina, as well as in Texas, Oklahoma, and Virginia, from April 2018 to October 2022.
The investigation found that Edwards and his accomplice bought cattle from sales barns in North Carolina and wrote checks to pay for them more than once during the relevant time frame.
These checks were worthless because Edwards and his partner in crime didn’t have enough money to cover them and pay for the cattle, King said.
Court records show that Edwards and his partner planned to move the cattle out of state before the sales barns and banks that were cheated could realize that their checks were not valid. After being stolen, the cattle were sold again in Texas and Oklahoma. As part of the plan, Edwards and his partner stole more than 3,000 cattle and caused sales barns in North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas to lose more than $1 million.
The North Carolina sales barns are run by a family and lose these amounts of money because they have to pay farmers and ranchers right away after selling their animals. Edwards admitted that he, along with others, planned to cheat the US government and break US laws. It was one of the goals of the alleged plot to make it harder for the Packers and Stockyard Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to oversee fair cattle markets.
King said that the conspiracy also had other goals, such as a plan to steal livestock worth more than $10,000 transport stolen livestock across state lines; and get money from federally insured banks by making false statements and representations.
The most time that can be spent in jail on the charged crime is five years, plus any fines or restitution that the court orders at sentencing.
