Reality star Steve McBee Sr. has claimed that the federal government threatened to indict his entire family if he didn’t take a plea deal in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving crop insurance.
McBee was a guest on Todd and Julie Chrisley’s podcast, “Chrisley Confessions 2.0,” on Wednesday. He shared that during the investigation, an investigator approached his son and claimed to be watching their reality TV show and monitoring his Instagram account.
“We were on episode 10. It had not aired yet, and they were just starting the investigation. When that investigator started, he had told my son, ‘I watched all your show, watch all your Instagram,’” McBee said.
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The “McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys” star claimed that the feds were “stalking” his family.
“As a matter of fact, one of my attorneys told me I’ve never seen anybody want somebody so bad,” he said.
McBee has four adult sons, Steven Jr., Jesse, Cole and Brayden, who he shares with his ex-wife, Kristi.
On the podcast, McBee said the “buck stops” with him, and he doesn’t want his family to be punished for his crime.
“Get all my other people off of it, get all the companies… because at the end of the day, the buck stops with me. And I take that accountability and responsibility. But like I said, I have 59 LLCs across the board. So we ended up at the end of that six-hour meeting agreeing that I would plea out to giving one count of a fraudulent statement,” he said.
McBee was sentenced to two years at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota, and during a sentencing hearing on Oct. 16, was also ordered to an additional two years of supervised release once he completes his prison sentence. He will also have to pay $4,022,124 in restitution to the USDA Risk Management Agency.
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Prior to his sentencing, he faced up to 30 years in federal prison.
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According to the reality star, his case was a “trophy prosecution at the highest level.”
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, McBee shared how he reacted to learning he would be going to prison, saying, “It was a sobering moment.”
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He explained that when he first heard about the investigation, he “really wasn’t overly concerned,” because, as a business owner for more than 33 years, he had “gone through every audit under the sun.” He thought it was just like any other audit, and after they got the necessary information, “it’ll go away like the rest of them.”
However, after a meeting with his lawyer, he came to understand that this time was different.
“I went down there and the government basically just gave us kind of a BAFO – best and final offer,” he said. “We have 48 hours. He said this is their bullying technique, kind of the poker game here. And then, basically what they said was, OK, you as an individual can plead guilty and, just for clarification, you can plead to one count of giving a fraudulent statement to crop insurance. If you don’t do that as an individual, Steve A. McBee, in turn, we’re going to charge one of my teammates, one of my co-workers, with 27 federal indictments in 48 hours.”
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He called what they did a “bullying technique,” saying both he and his teammates “had nothing to do with it.” He said that when he “looked at them charging some of my fellow co-workers,” he couldn’t let them take the blame, adding that as the owner of the company, “I made the decision the buck stops with me,” so he took the responsibility.
When it comes to his family, however, the reality star said they “have never been closer.” He said he knows he “raised four lions, not four sheep,” and isn’t worried about his sons, adding they have a strong work ethic.
Despite everything he is going through, McBee maintains he will “never let somebody make me a victim” and once his sentence is over, he “will come out stronger and more ready to go than ever.”
Fox News Digital’s Lori Bashian contributed to this report.
