Fourth Defendant Sentenced in Missouri Grain Fraud Case

The fourth defendant in a $2 million fraud committed at a southwest Missouri grain mill has been sentenced to about three years in federal prison.

Lyle E. Tourtillot, of Nevada, was sentenced Wednesday to three years and one month in prison without parole. The Joplin Globe reports he was also ordered repay Cargill about $1 million. He pleaded guilty Sept. 3 to two counts of mail fraud in a case involving three other co-defendants.

The defendants were accused of taking part in a scheme at the mill from December 1999 through March 2013 that involved creating scale tickets for fictitious loads of grain.