After more than six years of investigation, poring over more than 1 million documents and wiretaps, and the guilty pleas of 10 midlevel food-industry executives, the federal government hit the bull's-eye Friday.
Frederick Scott Salyer, the 56-year-old scion of one of California's most colorful and prominent agriculture families, pleaded guilty to racketeering and price-fixing in a deal favorable to him that calls for no more than seven years in prison.
Salyer, the former owner and chief executive officer of SK Foods LP in Monterey and a multimillionaire whose firm provided tomato products that ended up in most of the homes in this country, had faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted at trial of plotting widespread bribery as part of a conspiracy to gain the upper hand on his competitors.
Sacramento Bee, 3/24/12; see also Monterey Herald, 3/24/12.