Eastern District of California Blog

EDCA Court Sentences Two In SK Foods Corruption Case

Two key figures in the federal government’s bribery and racketeering probe of the tomato processing industry were sentenced today in Sacramento, with the defendants receiving starkly different treatment from U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.

Alan Scott Huey, the 57-year-old former vice president of Monterey-based SK Foods, received three years probation, which will include six months home confinement and 60 days of jail time to be served on weekends.

Karlton imposed the sentence after saying he was deeply torn between the need to order Huey to prison for his crimes and the fact that Huey – a cooperating witness in the case since the FBI raided SK Foods – is the sole caregiver for his wife, Norma, who suffered a massive stroke two years ago.

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A second defendant whose cooperation gave prosecutors stronger cases against Salyer and others did not fare as well before Karlton.

Randall Lee Rahal, a 65-year-old New Jersey food sales broker who now lives in Massachusetts, was seeking a sentence of nine months in prison and nine months home confinement.

The government asked for 26 months in prison and cited his cooperation as “honest, complete and credible,” and noted that, as the first defendant to plead guilty, he paved the path for others to follow suit.

He entered a guilty plea in December 2008 to conspiracies involving racketeering, price fixing, bid rigging and contract allocation, as well as money laundering.

Rahal used money from Salyer’s company to bribe purchasing managers to buy from SK Foods rather than competitors, and he urged Karlton this morning to send him to prison.

“I’m a liar and I’m a cheat and I’m a corrupter,” Rahal told the judge, adding: “I should go to prison, there’s nothing else to say. I knew what I was doing.”

Karlton obliged Rahal, sentencing him to 36 months in an extremely unusual decision to go beyond what the government was seeking.

“My view is that your client is about as guilty as Mr. Salyer,” the judge told Rahal’s attorneys.

Sacramento Bee, 4/8/14; [updated story Sacramento Bee, 4/8/14].

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/08/6306688/judge-sentences-key-figures-in.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/08/6306688/judge-sentences-key-figures-in.html#storylink=cpy

Safeway Buyer To Plead Guilty In Big Tomato Scandal

According to today's online version of the San Francisco Chronicle, 1/6/10,  

A Fremont man who purchased goods for Safeway stores has agreed to plead guilty to steering contracts to a California tomato processor in exchange for $5,000 from the supplier's sales broker . . . .

Chavez's prosecution is part of a long-running probe into alleged corruption by the tomato processor SK Foods of Lemoore (Kings County). SK Foods officials bribed some of the nation's biggest food companies, prosecutors said, and conspired to ship mislabeled tomato paste that exceeded government mold standards.

Consumers' health was not at risk, prosecutors said, but shoppers paid inflated prices for lower-quality food.

Second SK Foods Executive Charged And Agrees To Plead Guilty

According to an U.S. Attorney Office's press release, a second former SK Foods Executive, Senior V-P Alan Scott Huey of Monterey has been charged with a conspiracy involving the introduction of adulterated and misbranded foods in the "Big Tomato" food scandal.  See my earlier posts, Big Tomato Scandal. [Added Sacramento Bee, 11/5/09]

SK Foods Vice-President Agrees to Plead Guilty In "Big Tomato" Scandal

The Sacramento Bee reported that a vice-president at SK Foods was charged and has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors in the widening "Big Tomato" scandal. 

Ex-Kraft Foods Executive Gets 27 Months Prison in "Big Tomato" Scandal

According to the Sacramento Bee today, Judge Karlton sentenced an ex-Kraft Foods executive to 27 months prison in the "big tomato" scandal, see my May 8, 2009 and Feb 19, 2009 posts:

U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton said he planned to impose less prison time because of the "tragedy of Mr. Watson's personal life" at the time he took bribes to manipulate the purchasing process. Watson's wife was terminally ill and he was supporting his daughter, who was his wife's full-time caregiver.

Upon further reflection, Karlton said, he decided lighter punishment was "inappropriate," given the offense's nature.

"This was a very large fraud encompassing food for the American people," the judge noted.

Another Guilty Plea in Big Tomato Food Scandal

According to the Sacramento Bee, prosecutors obtained another guilty plea on Tuesday in the Big Tomato Food Scandal:

Robert C. Turner Jr., who was purchasing director for Nabisco Inc., and later for B&G Foods Inc., admitted accepting $65,000 in bribe payments from Randall Lee Rahal, a former sales broker and director of SK Foods LP. . . . .

Turner, 59, of Randolph, N.J., admitted depriving B&G of its right to his honest services by steering contracts for tomato and other food products to SK Foods in return for the payoffs, and by securing contracts between B&G and SK Foods for the sale of certain products at inflated prices.

His guilty plea grows out of an ongoing nationwide investigation by the criminal and antitrust divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice. The probe is spearheaded in California by Benjamin Wagner and Sean Flynn, assistant U.S. attorneys in Sacramento, and Barbara Nelson, Richard Cohen and Lara Kroop of the antitrust division's San Francisco field office.

My 2/19 Big Tomato Post