from the U.S. Attorney in Little Rock:
Four women, all sisters, have pleaded guilty to their involvement in defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of over $11.5 million that was intended to benefit farmers who had been discriminated against. Lynda Charles, 72, of Hot Springs; Rosie Bryant, 74, of Colleyville, Texas; Delois Bryant, 75, of North Little Rock; and Brenda Sherpell, 72, of Gainesville, Texas, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and to defraud the Internal Revenue Service today before Chief United States District Judge D. Price Marshall. Chief Judge Marshall will sentence the defendants at a later date.
The four defendants admitted in court today that from 2008 until 2017, they solicited people to file false claims asserting they were discriminated against when they tried to get assistance from USDA for their farming operations. A fifth defendant, Niki Charles, is the daughter of Lynda Charles. A sixth defendant, Everett Martindale, worked as an attorney and acted as the legal representative for most of the claimants that the five women recruited. Both Niki Charles and Martindale are set for trial on August 30, 2022.
The sisters also admitted today that they hired a tax preparer to falsify tax returns, resulting in failure to report over $4.6 million to the Internal Revenue Service. That tax preparer, Jerry Green, pleaded guilty in January 2021.
As documented in plea agreements, the defendants submitted claims related to two…
