What happened to Steve McBee? Charges and details of sentencing explored ahead of reality star's prison term

Steve McBee Sr, who starred in the reality TV series The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, has been sentenced to 24 months in prison. He will be on supervised release for the following 2 years.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen R. Bough found Steve guilty of a multimillion-dollar federal crop insurance fraud on Thursday, October 16. The sentencing hearing took place at the Kansas City district court in Missouri. It was originally scheduled for March, but was met with repeated rescheduling.

Initially, Steve was facing a 30-year sentence. Prosecutors asked the Judge to sentence Steve to 41 months in prison and put him under supervision for 3 years after his release.

Ag reality television star and Missouri farmer Steve A. McBee was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Thursday and ordered to pay $4 million in restitution, after pleading guilty to crop insurance fraud committed on his farm in Gallatin, Missouri.

Environmental Editor… pic.twitter.com/w4OEzD4TxK

— DTN/Progressive Farmer (@dtnpf) October 16, 2025

In a court document filed on October 6, the federal government asked for Steve to pay $3,158,923 as a forfeiture. Steve has also been ordered to pay a restitution fee of $4,022,124.

Per a November 2024 press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office at the Western District of Missouri, the government claimed Steve gained this amount by fraudulent activities.

USA Today reported, Steve McBee has been ordered to surrender himself by 2 pm on December 1, after which he would be taken to a federal prison in South Dakota's Yankton.

Steve McBee made multiple false crop reports since 2018

On November 5, 2024, Steve McBee Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of federal crop insurance fraud. According to the Department of Justice's press release from last year, Steve admitted to engaging in fraudulent schemes from 2018 to 2020.

The McBee family patriarch submitted fraudulent documents for his 2018 and 2020 crop reports to a federal crop insurance company, Rain and Hail. The press release stated Steve underreported his total 2018 corn batch "by approximately 674,812 bushels", and his 2018 soybean batch "by approximately 155,833 bushels".

🚨 Steve McBee is yet another Bravolebrity headed to Prison 😩 #McBeeDynasty pic.twitter.com/JJ3InLnw8k

— Recap The Room (@recaptheroom) October 16, 2025

The press release further added:

"As a result of these false reports, McBee received $2,605,943 in federal crop insurance benefits to which he was not entitled, as well as $552,980 in federal crop insurance premium subsidies to which he was not entitled, for a total of $3,158,923."

Despite selling around 416K bushels of soybeans and over 1.2 million bushels of corn in 2018, Steve’s false reports claimed his farm only produced around 190K bushels of soybeans and around 340K bushels of corn.

Steve McBee also received federal crop insurance benefits by submitting another false report to Rain and Hail in 2019 over the double-cropping of wheat and soybeans.

In 2020, Steve submitted a report with false corn planting dates to avail benefits from NAU Country Insurance.

​Steve McBee Sr., the Bravo reality series star, was married to Kristi McBee for 28 years until their divorce, filed in 2019. They share four sons: Brayden, Cole, Jesse, and Steven Jr.