United States Attorney Randolph J. Seiler announced that a Sisseton, South Dakota, man who was convicted of several counts of fraud was sentenced on Oct. 16, 2017, by U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann.
Keith Hagen, age 49, was sentenced to 46 months of imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Hagen was ordered to pay a total of $236,000 in restitution. Hagen was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund for each of the eight counts of conviction.
Hagen and his former wife, Amanda Holy Bull, were indicted on February 9, 2016, for Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud, three counts of Wire Fraud, and four counts of Mail Fraud. A federal jury convicted Hagen on all counts on June 28, 2017. Holy Bull, age 33, also of Sisseton, pled guilty to the conspiracy charge and will be sentenced on Oct. 30, 2017.
Hagen and Holy Bull leased pasture land from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They used the land to provide custom cattle grazing services to cattle producers.
They entered into contracts with several cattle producers, knowing that they did not lease enough pasture land to graze all of the cattle for which they had contracted. They took up-front payments from several producers, failed to provide the grazing services, and used the money for personal purposes. In all Hagen and Holy Bull defrauded producers out of $236,000.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann M. Hoffman prosecuted the case.
Hagen was allowed to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
