The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys patriarch Steven McBee Sr. has been sentenced to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of federal crop insurance fraud, according to People.
A U.S. District Court Judge reportedly ordered Steve Sr. another two years on supervised release, and that he pay $4,022,124 in restitution. He’ll have to self-surrender before December 1.
The sentencing took place on Oct. 16, just less than a year after Steve Sr. entered his guilty plea with a federal court in Kansas City in November 2024.
By pleading guilty in federal court, Steve had “admitted that he engaged in fraudulent activity from 2018 to 2020 that caused an economic loss to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri.
More specifically, Steve accepted blame for submitting fraudulent documents that underreported the McBee Farm & Cattle Co.’s corn crop and soybean crop totals in 2018, resulting in the business unlawfully receiving more than a combined $3 million in federal crop insurance subsidies and federal crop insurance premium subsidies, per the DOJ’s announcement.
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What sentence was Steven McBee Sr. facing?
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri, confirmed in a press release that Steve Sr. was facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison without parole.
Federal prosecutors had filed a sentencing memorandum on Oct. 6, recommending that the McBee patriarch serve 41 months in prison, in addition to paying $4 million in restitution to the USDA, followed by three years of supervised release per DTN.
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Steve McBee Sr. explained his crop insurance fraud guilty plea
On the heels of Steve Sr.’s guilty plea, his sons Steven McBee Jr. and Jesse McBee shared his statement about the charges on their Meet the McBees podcast in November 2024.
“I entered a plea agreement to address crop insurance issues with farming operations back in 2018 through 2020,” Jesse read, on his father’s behalf. “I personally accept responsibility, as the buck stops with me.”
“I will always acknowledge a failure in judgement and action, just like I will always celebrate our McBee team when it comes to enjoying success,” he continued. “From our first-generation family farm to all our other McBee family ventures, we are committed to conducting business the right way. The high standards we satisfy now in 2024 will continue to guide McBee endeavors and projects moving forward.”
How Steven McBee Jr. reacted to Steve Sr.’s guilty plea
News of an FBI investigation into Steve Sr.’s business dealings had previously come to light during Season 2 of The McBee Dynasty. Though Steven Jr. had tried to keep the investigation under wraps from everyone except mom Kristi McBee and the company’s CFO, Galyna Saltkovska, he eventually came clean to his brothers Jesse and Cole McBee on the Season 2 finale, preparing them for the fact that it was “looking like there may be prison time involved.”
In an exclusive July 2025 interview with The Daily Dish, Steven opened up about how the FBI investigation had impacted the McBees.
“It’s been a very, very stressful time for our family,” he shared, at the time. “As much good as we’ve had going on, that has always been sort of this cloud that’s been looming over us at all times, and we think about it all the time.”
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After the Season 2 finale aired on Sept. 1, Steven Jr. further unpacked his heavy emotions, as his father’s sentencing date quickly approached.
Noting in an interview with The Daily Dish that he was feeling “scared, nervous, anything and everything,” he added, “All of the emotions are being stirred leading up to my dad’s sentencing. We love him so much, and love our family unit, so to picture him not being here with us for any amount of time … it’s scary.”
“We’re focusing on the positive things we have going, of which there are so many, but I’d be lying if I said that black cloud hasn’t been hanging over us every second of every day since we first found out,” Steven Jr. continued. “We’re ready to get past that day, deal with whatever comes of it and move on to say the least. We know no matter what if we stick together as a family, we’ll make it through anything.”
Now that the family has learned Steve Sr.’s fate, find out how Jesse and Cole reacted to Steven Jr.’s FBI investigation reveal on The McBee Dynasty Season 2.
