The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that Roy Tuccillo, Sr., his son Roy Tuccillo, Jr., and their food processing and distribution companies, Anchor Frozen Foods Inc. and Advanced Frozen Foods Inc., have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The companies reportedly imported 113,000 pounds of squid and sold it as octopus to more than ten grocery stores. The father and son could face up to five years of imprisonment and fines up to $250,000, while their companies may be required to pay a fine of up to $500,000 and face five years of probation.
Tag Archives DOJ
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that two executives of a meatpacking plant pleaded guilty to selling 775,000 pounds of adulterated meat—"including whole cow hearts labeled as 'ground beef'"— for more than $1 million to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The executives' company, West Texas Provisions, falsely marketed its products as inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to DOJ; the company allegedly "kept the whole hearts offsite until inspectors left the premises, then processed the hearts on nights and weekends, when inspectors weren't working," and "[t]hey often kept the lights off inside the facility while processing the uninspected meat, hid uninspected meat in the freezer while inspectors were in the building, and distracted inspectors from looking at the product." The defendants face up to five years in prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that Memet Beqiri had pleaded guilty to "a charge related to his meat processing business's falsification of numerous E. coli test results," according to a press release. Beqiri, owner and general manager of New England Meat Packing LLC, allegedly prepared and submitted falsified documents indicating that the company had sent carcass swabs and ground beef samples to a certified laboratory, which purportedly had found no E. coli. "In fact, none of the 52 carcass swabs and samples had been submitted or tested by the identified laboratory, or any other laboratory, and the 36 documents were fraudulently prepared using laboratory letterhead obtained from previous testing that New England Meat Packing had conducted with that laboratory," the press release states. The charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years; Beqiri will be sentenced in November 2019.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint alleging Foo Yuan Food Products Co. Inc. distributes seafood products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum. According to DOJ’s press release, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspected the facility several times and documented “significant deficiencies” during each inspection, including the alleged “failure to maintain the cleanliness of food contact sources” and “failure to ensure that all persons working in direct contact with food, food contact surfaces and food-packing materials conformed to hygienic practices to protect against food contamination.” “The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that food processors comply with laws designed to ensure food safety,” an attorney for DOJ said in a press release. “The Department of Justice will continue to work with the FDA to ensure that Americans are protected from potentially unsafe food.”
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has intervened in an ongoing series of lawsuits against Tri-Union Seafoods, StarKist and Bumble Bee Foods alleging the companies conspired to set prices for tuna in the United States. In re Packaged Seafood Prods. Antitrust Litig., 15-2670 (S.D. Cal., order entered January 20, 2015). A California federal court granted the government’s unopposed motion to intervene at a status conference with attorneys representing several consumer and competitor plaintiffs in the consolidated action. The court found “common questions of law and fact between this civil action and an ongoing criminal grand jury investigation” conducted by the DOJ and accordingly granted a stay in the case. Details about the consolidation appear in Issue 588 of this Update and additional information on lawsuits brought by grocers appears in Issues 574 and 590. Issue 591
Attorneys in the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have filed a lawsuit against Wholesome Soy Products to permanently enjoin the company, its owner and manager from causing food to become adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) after government agencies allegedly linked the company’s facilities to a 2014 outbreak of Listeria in Michigan and Illinois. United States v. Wholesome Soy Prods., Inc., No. 15-2974 (N.D. Ill., filed April 3, 2015). Wholesome Soy manufactured and sold mung bean and soybean sprouts until November 2014, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state agencies allegedly traced incidents of Listeria infections observed in five people to the Wholesome Soy facility. An FDA laboratory allegedly found Listeria in 28 samples—including two from mung bean sprouts—taken during a September 2014 inspection of Wholesome Soy’s plant and…
