Steven McBee Jr. is opening up about the financial pressure facing the McBee family after Steve McBee Sr. was sentenced in his federal crop insurance fraud case.
During the season 3 premiere of “The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys,” the Bravo star explained that his father’s legal situation created new concerns for McBee Farm & Cattle Co. and the family’s other business ventures.
Steve Sr. was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution after pleading guilty to one count of federal crop insurance fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri. On the show, the family discussed a combined $7 million in fines and restitution.
Steven McBee Jr. Warned About a Possible Domino Effect
Before Steve Sr.’s sentencing, Steven Jr. spoke with McBee Farm & Cattle Co. CFO and part-owner Galyna Saltkovska about how much was at stake.
“Every single loan on our books, there is a moral clause where if one of the owners happens to have a felony, the bank can reconsider the loan and call the note to where you have to pay off that loan within 15 to 30 days,” Steven Jr. said. “And my fear is that if something goes bad tomorrow, we’re going to have a domino effect of banks calling notes.”
In a confessional, he explained that the family was already carrying significant debt before the sentencing.
“We were already in a heavy debt scenario beforehand. Throw in a felony charge on top of that, and things just got a hell of a lot worse,” he said. “If any of these banks pull these loans, that number could end up reaching eight figures really quickly.”
Saltkovska said the family had already been forced to sell land to pay down debt. According to the episode, that included roughly 60,000 acres.
Steven Jr. said the fallout could extend beyond the farm and impact the family’s homes, car washes, meat facility, fulfillment center and other businesses.
“I have selfishly thought a little bit about tomorrow and the repercussions of it, and it kind of feels like my dad’s not the only one being sentenced,” Steven Jr. said. “Because if things go bad, this farm sort of becomes my prison.”
He later added, “If my dad ends up going to prison, I’m going to have to step in even more than I am now.”
McBee Family Decides to Sell Its Headquarters After Sentencing
After Steve Sr. was sentenced, Steven Jr. met with Jesse McBee, Cole McBee, Brayden McBee and Tessa Lollar in the company’s War Room to discuss what came next.
“My dad facing a $7 million fine is hard to even fathom,” Steven Jr. said in a confessional. “That’s a ton of money that we do not have.”
The family quickly turned to difficult decisions about selling assets.
“Anything we don’t need, we’re getting rid of,” Steven Jr. told the group. “And so, we’ve gotta sell the facility. I know we love this facility, I know we love this headquarters and built it out as our dream facility, but… We’ve got no other choice.”
The headquarters included major pieces of the operation, including grain bins, liquid storage, the shop and the aviation building. The family estimated selling the property could bring in between $5 million and $10 million in profit.
“As much as I hate to do that, that is the only path forward where we can keep the main farm and all of our houses,” Steven Jr. said. “Let’s cut down debt, get the banks to breathe a little bit and to stop blowing us up, so then we can focus on the actual businesses.”
The brothers also revealed on the episode that the car wash business alone had accumulated approximately $35 million in debt.
Steve McBee Sr. Pleaded Guilty to Crop Insurance Fraud
Steve Sr. was charged in November 2024 with one count of federal crop insurance fraud.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri, he admitted to engaging in fraudulent activity from 2018 to 2020 that caused an economic loss to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Prosecutors said he submitted documents that underreported corn and soybean crop totals, leading to more than $3 million in federal crop insurance subsidies and premium subsidies.
He pleaded guilty in federal court and was later sentenced to 24 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $4,022,124 in restitution.
Cole McBee & Kacie Adkison Worried About Losing Her Dream Home
The June 15 episode also showed how the situation affected the family personally.
Kacie Adkison confronted Cole after learning from Alli McBee that there was a chance they could lose the home they had built because the land was in Steve Sr.’s name.
“If we did lose the house, I just don’t know what we’ll do,” Kacie told a producer. “We put all of our money into our house, we can’t just start over, we thought this is where Blair’s gonna grow up. It makes me sick to think about when so much is already going on.”
Cole said land in his and his brothers’ names appeared to be safe, but his house and the land beneath it had been placed under his father’s name.
“I did not even want her to even think about this going into the sentencing day tomorrow,” Cole said. “What do I do? Just scare her when I don’t even know what’s gonna happen?”
