Plea Deal for Winemillers Introduced in Long-Running Criminal Fraud Case

Remember the long-standing criminal fraud charges against Jimmy Winemiller and his son, Michael?

The Feb. 27 trial date came and went without courtroom resolution in U.S. District Court in Greenville, Miss. Although it marked the 17th time an unfulfilled court date was set in the five years since the indictment, this time plea deals have surfaced.

If the agreement stands, the charges against the elder Winemiller will be dismissed while his son will receive probation and their Straight Creek Farms Inc. will pay $4.25 million in restitution at sentencing.

No date is set for this.

The Winemillers, remember, are accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and loan-credit application fraud in connection with the sale of a 1,560-acre catfish operation near Inverness, Miss.

The alleged fraud was aided by bribery, forgery and bogus appraisals.

The Winemillers were accused of removing assets from the property before the sale was completed, including timber, equipment and more than 6.2 million pounds of catfish.

Those assets were supposed to be part of the purchase and remain as collateral on the $10 million loan that financed the deal.

The loan was made by Gulf Coast Bank & Trust of New Orleans and was largely guaranteed by the federal government’s Rural Development Administration.

The numbers game with assets and collateral was played to falsely qualify for the favorable RDA financing and create a lucrative transaction at the expense of the lender, according to the feds.

Straight Creek Farm was resold at foreclosure in a deal that reflected 35 cents on the dollar compared with the original transaction.

Jimmy Winemiller, the former Newport agri wheeler-dealer who called Little Rock home for more than 20 years, resides in Memphis these days.