Dirty Business: Kraft Foods Ingredient Buyer and Three Others Plead Guilty to Taking Bribes that Allow Tomato Processor SK Foods to Sell Tainted Food
Over the last 14 months, Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, and three other purchasing managers, at Frito-Lay, Safeway and B&G Foods, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes that have allowed millions of pounds of tomato products with high levels of mold or other defects to be used in their companies' products. Five people connected to one of the nation's largest tomato processors, SK Foods, have also admitted to taking part in the scheme, the NY Times reports.
Now, federal prosecutors in California have taken aim at the owner of SK Foods, who they say spearheaded the far-reaching plot. The man, Frederick Scott Salyer, was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City on Feb. 4 after getting off a flight from Switzerland. He was indicted last week on racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice charges, the NY Times reports.
The scheme, as laid out by federal prosecutors, has two parts. Officials say that Salyer and others at SK Foods greased the palms of a handful of corporate buyers in exchange for lucrative contracts and confidential information on bids submitted by competitors. This most likely drove up ingredient prices for the big food companies, reports Times writer William Neuman.
In addition, prosecutors say that for years, SK Foods shipped its customers millions of pounds of bulk tomato paste and puree that fell short of basic quality standards — with falsified documentation to mask the problems. Often that meant mold counts so high the sale should have been prohibited under federal law; at other times it involved breaching specifications in the sales contracts, such as acidity levels or the age of the product, the article reports.
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