WASHINGTON — Jimmy Thomas Sasser stood in silence in February as a federal judge sentenced him to four years in prison. For more than a decade, prosecutors said, Mr. Sasser, an insurance adjuster from Wilson, N.C., participated in a plot involving dozens of farmers, warehouse workers and insurance agents who conspired to defraud the federal crop insurance program of nearly $100 million by claiming fake losses on crops.

Prosecutors said Mr. Sasser had taken kickbacks of $400 to $2,000 to falsify claims, and he was ordered to pay more than $21 million in restitution. Federal officials said it was the largest crop insurance fraud scheme in the history of the program, with 41 people pleading guilty or reaching plea agreements so far.

But after he was sentenced, Mr. Sasser said crop insurance fraud extended well beyond North Carolina.

“I can tell you it’s everywhere, all across the country,” Mr. Sasser told The Associated Press. “When you let the farmers keep up with their own production, they can put that production anywhere they want to. All the adjuster does is take what the farmer gives him to work the claim. What the farmer does before the adjuster gets there, the adjuster has no idea.”