Northern Kansas man admits to hay fraud of Montana rancher, faces $250k fine

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A Logan, Kansas, man pleaded guilty to defrauding a rancher in Montana on Friday.

A news release from the Department of Justice said Jory Parks, 43, was arraigned and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

Court documents say a drought in the summer of 2021 caused a hay shortage in Montana and Wyoming. The DOJ said Parks “intentionally devised a scheme to defraud these ranchers” by advertising on Facebook, claiming he was selling large amounts of hay and was willing to deliver to Wyoming and Montana.

Parks, operating as Heart Cross Ranch, LLC, received money from customers in exchange for promises to deliver hay. Instead, he used the money for unrelated expenses and made false promises about what he would deliver, as well as the success of his business.

The DOJ said in September 2021, Parks was trying to convince a prospective customer that he had a successful business selling high-quality hay. He told the victim that he had sold all his hay the previous year to a known horse racing facility in Nebraska to feed racehorses.

After interviewing the facility’s CEO and analyzing Parks’ financials, the FBI determined that Parks was lying.

The news release from the DOJ said a ranching business owned by a couple in Ingomar, Montana, responded to one of Parks’ Facebook ads. The couple signed a contract with Parks to buy 190 tons of hay from Parks for $43,300 and mailed half of the amount as a down payment to Heart Cross Ranch.

The DOJ said Parks deposited the check into his business account in a bank in Colorado. Three weeks later, Parks delivered the couple’s first shipment of 23 tons of the 190 tons they had purchased but never delivered the additional hay or repaid the remainder of the downpayment.

A sentencing date has not yet been set. The DOJ said Parks faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

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