May 06, 2009

NEW JERSEY MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN CONNECTION WITH ONGOING TOMATO INDUSTRY PROBE

Former Director of Purchasing for B&G Foods Inc. Admits to Accepting Bribes

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Acting United States Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced today that ROBERT C. TURNER Jr., 59, of Randolph, N.J., pleaded guilty this morning before United States District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton to two counts of honest services mail fraud in connection with an ongoing federal investigation into various illicit activities in the tomato processing industry. He has further agreed to pay $65,198 in restitution to his former employers, B&G Foods Inc. and Nabisco Inc.

This case is the product of a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Benjamin B. Wagner, Sean C. Flynn, and Anne E. Pings, who are prosecuting the case together with Barbara Nelson, Richard Cohen, and Lara Kroop of the San Francisco Field Office of the Antitrust Division, between 2004 and 2008, TURNER served as a corporate purchasing manager for B&G Foods Inc., a multinational manufacturer, seller, and distributor of various food products with a principal place of business in Parsippany, N.J. He was Director of Purchasing for the company from 2007–2008. Prior to 2004, TURNER was employed in a similar capacity by Nabisco Inc., a manufacturer, distributor, and seller of cookies, snacks, and other food products, which is based in East Hanover, N.J.

TURNER admitted to receiving approximately $65,000 in personal bribe payments while working at B&G Foods and Nabisco from RANDALL LEE RAHAL, a former sales broker and Director of SK Foods L.P., a California-based grower and processor of tomato products and other food products for sale to food product manufacturers, food service distributors and marketers and retail outlets nationwide. TURNER admitted to depriving B&G Foods of its right to his honest services by steering contracts for processed tomato and other food products to SK Foods rather than industry competitors in return for the bribes, and by securing contracts between his employer and SK Foods for the sale of certain food products at inflated prices.

TURNER is the latest addition to a group of high-ranking corporate purchasing managers who have pleaded guilty to receiving bribes from SK Foods while working at some of the nation’s largest food companies. Like TURNER, ROBERT WATSON and JAMES WAHL, former purchasing managers at Kraft Foods Inc. and Frito-Lay Inc., respectively, have also admitted to receiving illicit payments from RAHAL over an extended period. RAHAL pleaded guilty to participating in racketeering, price fixing, bid rigging, and contract allocation conspiracies, among other charges, in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on December 16, 2008.

In addition to a demonstrated pattern of honest services fraud and commercial bribery, to date the Department of Justice’s investigation of SK Foods has uncovered wide-ranging fraud with respect to the quality of the tomato product that was produced, purchased and sold by the company. On February 18, 2009, former SK Foods Records and Business Analyst, JENNIFER DAHLMAN, pleaded guilty to causing the shipment to SK Foods’ customers of processed tomato products that were adulterated and unsaleable domestically due to their excessive mold content. DAHLMAN further admitted to routinely falsifying the various grading factors and results of required laboratory testing contained on “Certificates of Analysis” and other quality control documents that accompanied customer-bound shipments of tomato product. DAHLMAN admitted that her actions were conducted at the express instruction and direction of senior leaders and directors of SK Foods.

“Criminal actions such as what have been uncovered in this wide-ranging investigation undermine the marketplace and ultimately harm the consumer,” said Acting United States Attorney Brown. “We all pay higher prices when purchasing decisions by wholesalers are influenced by bribes rather than the best product at the best price.”

Sentencing for TURNER is scheduled for August 4, 2009. The maximum statutory penalty on the honest services mail fraud charges against TURNER is 20 years in prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court, after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

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For more information on federal criminal defense law, contact the Law Offices of Joseph Shemaria of Los Angeles, California.