More guilty pleas in tomato-processing scandal

[Robbien]

Source: SF Gate

Purchasing managers for Kraft Foods and Frito-Lay have admitted taking a total of $318,000 in bribes from a broker at a major Central California tomato processor while arranging to buy the company's products at inflated prices, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

A third defendant pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding his former employer, a tomato products manufacturer and marketer, out of $975,000 before leaving in 2005 to join the tomato processor, SK Foods of Lemoore (Kings County). The charges, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, are part of a federal price-fixing investigation involving SK Foods.

Federal prosecutors have described SK Foods as a "racketeering enterprise," but have not filed charges against the company or any of its executives.

. . .

SK Foods, which owns plants in Lemoore and Colusa as well as overseas, produces about 15 percent of the bulk tomato paste sold to U.S. makers of ketchup, salsa and tomato juice, according to an FBI affidavit. Almost all the nation's tomato processing is done in California.

Prosecutors have said the corruption alleged in the case has raised consumer prices for tomato sauces, soups and salsas. The charges announced Tuesday provided the first few details.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/27/BAB615I887.DTL

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[NMDemDist2]

1. IIRC Kings County is right next door to Freeperville n/t

[childslibrarian]

2. It is just the tip

Of the iceberg...