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SK Foods’ former CEO and owner pleads guilty to racketeering and price fixing

By  |  March 26, 2012

The former CEO and owner of SK Foods, Frederick Scott Salyer, pleaded guilty to racketeering and price fixing. SK Foods was a grower, processor and seller of agricultural products, most notably tomato paste.
From 2004 to 2008, Salyer encouraged a food broker to pay bribes and kickbacks to purchasing officers employed by Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, and B&G Foods; all three were SK Foods’s customers.
Salyer had also directed SK Foods employees to falsify lab results for its tomato paste.

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    With other tomato paste sellers, Salyer discussed a target price agreement. Salyer had a co-conspirator withdraw a lower price offered to a customer.

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    Salyer will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on July 10, 2012. Salyer’s bribe recipients and many of his SK Foods subordinates pleaded guilty in 2009.

    Full content: DOJ Press Release

     

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