Man to be sentenced in tomato price-fixing scam
Central Calif. tomato company sentenced
Posted: 02/12/2013
Last Updated:
96 days ago
The former owner of a Central California tomato processing company will be sentenced in U.S. District Court Tuesday for paying bribes to purchasing managers at some of the nation's food giants.
Frederick Scott Salyer of SK Foods pleaded guilty last year to charges of racketeering and price fixing. He could receive up to 30 years, but under a plea agreement he's expected to be sentenced to between four and seven years.
Salyer and 10 co-conspirators were charged by the federal government with manipulating the price and quality of millions of pounds of processed tomatoes. The company bribed purchasing managers at companies such as Kraft, Pepsico Inc.'s Frito-Lay unit and Safeway.
Food companies lost more than $2 million through overpayments. Often they bought moldy products and those falsely labeled as organic.
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