Centerville Businessman Sentenced to One Year Probation and a $100,000.00 Fine in Food Stamp Fraud Case
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 06, 2010 |
DES MOINES—On May 6, 2010, Kris Erhardt Koestner, of Centerville, Iowa, was sentenced to a term of one year probation and ordered to pay a $100,000.00 fine for tampering with a witness, announced United States Attorney, Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. Chief United States District Court Judge Robert W. Pratt also directed that Koestner undergo a mental health evaluation and pay $100 to the Crime Victim Fund.
Koestner was indicted for food stamp fraud and witness tampering arising from his Centerville, Iowa grocery store, J&K Market. Koestner pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness on January 11, 2010. Koestner admitted instructing a witness in the federal investigation that if he was interviewed, he was to tell law enforcement that he (the witness) only purchased food items at J&K Market. This case was prosecuted in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.
This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, and the Centerville, Iowa Police Department.