BISMARCK, N.D. — An interim study committee of the North Dakota Legislature met for the first time Oct. 3 on how to make changes in grain regulation in the wake of scandals like the Hunter Hanson Ponzi scheme.
The joint House and Senate Agriculture and Transportation Committee heard a number of policy possibilities, some of which could be made administratively, and some of which would require legislative action in the next regular session, starting in January 2021. The interim committee will schedule further meetings, but they aren’t yet on the calendar.
The Legislature asked for an intense study of grain marketing regulation in the state after Hanson, then 21 and then living in Leeds, N.D., created a Ponzi scheme in which he bilked farmers and elevators out of millions of dollars in 2018.