Ex-official gets prison time for Iowa grain blending scheme

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A former official of a large grain warehouse in Iowa has been sentenced to three months in prison for his role in a scheme to blend lower value oats into soybeans and then sell the mixture as soybeans to unsuspecting buyers. The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release that 60-year-old Calvin Diehl of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was also fined $7,500 in addition to the prison term. He pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Diehl was the assisted general manager at the Sioux Center grain cooperative.