Bribes Let Tomato Vendor Sell Tainted Food

[Robbien]

Source: NYT Business Ledger

Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, needed $20,000 to pay his taxes. So he called a broker for a California tomato processor that for years had been paying him bribes to get its products into Kraft’s plants.

. . .

Over the last 14 months, Mr. Watson and three other purchasing managers, at Frito-Lay, Safeway and B&G Foods, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes. Five people connected to one of the nation’s largest tomato processors, SK Foods, have also admitted taking part in the scheme.

Now, federal prosecutors in California have taken aim at the owner of SK Foods, who they say spearheaded the far-reaching plot. The man, Frederick Scott Salyer, was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City on Feb. 4 after getting off a flight from Switzerland. He was indicted last week on racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice charges.

The scheme, as laid out by federal prosecutors, has two parts. Officials say that Mr. Salyer and others at SK Foods greased the palms of a handful of corporate buyers in exchange for lucrative contracts and confidential information on bids submitted by competitors. This most likely drove up ingredient prices for the big food companies.

In addition, prosecutors say that for years, SK Foods shipped its customers millions of pounds of bulk tomato paste and puree that fell short of basic quality standards — with falsified documentation to mask the problems. Often that meant mold counts so high the sale should have been prohibited under federal law; at other times it involved breaching specifications in the sales contracts, such as acidity levels or the age of the product.

Read more: http://www.theledger.com/article/20100225/ZNYT01/2253013/1001/BUSINESS?Title=Bribes-Let-Tomato-Vendor-Sell-Tainted-Food

---

Tomato flavored mold. Yum.

[Zoeisright]

1. I am no longer surprised at anything done by large corporations.

They are thieves, liars, and murderers. And we should have the death penalty for corporations, for the CEOs and anyone who does shit like this. If they want personhood, they'll get it all right.

[sasquuatch55]

10. Money is the greatest evil; you need it, you desire it, you are forced to feed the machine.

It will make a one do almost anything, and cause all participants to devise ways to take it from you.

[peggygirl]

54. This should be all over the media instead of GOP HCR talking points.

These culprits not only sell us tainted food but most food companies have packaged their goods in containers about 4 oz less than the original containers but have not changed the container design so that consumers think they are buying the same product in the same amount...but that is not true. The prices have gone up but the quantity has been reduced...now we learn that the "quality" has also been reduced. People aren't outraged because most of them are being dupped. I wrote letters to Kraft and a few others to no avial. Mayo, salad dressings, canned veggies, and ice cream are the major culprits for this look-alike-reduced packaging with higher costs.

[Hutzpa]

61. Since you're no longer surprise

what do you think can be done to prevent this kind of abuses from happening in the future?

[fasttense]

2. Ah, the free market at its best, selling you rotten tomatoes.

The free market making you deathly ill for fun and profits.

[WriteDown]

4. What kind of market eliminates bribery? Nt

[pattmarty]

6. Regulated.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. There's no bribery in North Korea?

I'd wager any amount of money that you can find bribery going on in any economy.

[tinrobot]

31. A non-monopolistic one will mitigate it.

[WriteDown]

32. Examples?

Is there a monopoly on tomato brokers?

[tinrobot]

35. Kraft is pretty close to a monopoly

[WriteDown]

37. It is?

They are the only buyer of tomatoes? Maybe if this guy didn't "need" 20K for taxes, he wouldn't have turned to bribery, right?

[greiner3]

44. I worked for domino's pizza;

Ended up as a franchise owner. Whatever their humongous faults are, I may have downplayed their many, many faults, they do own fields where they plant, harvest and can their own tomato products used for their pizzas. I would imagine the other big tomato users do also.

[fasttense]

49. Maybe if his taxes actually went to regulating the industry and corporations he

couldn't have bribed anyone. Maybe he would have gotten away with it once, but if we had civil servants actually inspecting our food he would have been caught.

Now, they aren't even afraid of getting caught.

No, instead our tax dollars go to bailing out banks and corporate welfare.

[WriteDown]

The penalty for murder is pretty high, but murders still happen everyday...

This guy had 20K of taxes that were due so the briber had leverage on the bribee. Not sure how you change that.

[xxqqqzme]

56. Isn't Kraft

owned by Philip Morris? or some big tobacco conglomerate?

[prairierose]

34. A regulated one that has professional civil servants...

,who are protected from rapacious corporations, working for the people.

[WriteDown]

43. Examples? nt

[fasttense]

47. A well regulated market. n/t

[WriteDown]

51. Like North Korea or China? nt

[WinkyDink]

63. Ah, it all probably went to public schools, so what the heck.

[Warpy]

3. For putting the health of millions of us at risk, including our children

the scum sucking piece of shit at Kraft got a measly two years and he'll likely be out in a matter of months.

We need an overhaul of our justice system that assesses punishment including fines according to the number of people who were threatened and/or actually harmed.

White collar criminals would never see the light of day.

[WhiteTara]

5. in China, they would hang him. n/t

[era veteran]

12. I agree with the Chinese

Reading in other places along with this info I surmise that Saylor thug is a piece of work. Big shot CA agricultural family, this greedy asshole couldn't steal enough. The food supply needs a lot better protection. This makes me sick.

[hmorehead]

15. And what other aspects of the wonderful Chinese "justice" system do you like a lot?????

[WhiteTara]

71. who said I liked it?

I was just stating a fact.

[Name removed]

79. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WhiteTara]

84. maybe that's why they hang them

to keep our beautiful minds smooth...no nasty blood.

Sorry, if I sound sarcastic, but reporting what is done to gross greed that sickens and kills entire populations shouldn't be such a traumatic event for you. In the words of my father, Buck Up

[Name removed]

85. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hobbit709]

16. Actually in China, they take you out back and put a bullet in your head.

A little messier than hanging.

[Lasher]

41. And they would make your family pay for the bullet. N/T

[MilitarismFTL]

46. Fortunately, the state pays for everything in a communist system

So the state is really just having its own bullet buy-back program.

/sarcasm

[Hekate]

59. ... and harvest your organs. I prefer our justice system, even for scum like this. nt

[pundaint]

7. Yes this is highly needed, I propose a four-part system for sentence guidelines

1. Threat of violence during crime 2 years, showing weapon 5 years, drawing blood 10 years - Plus

2. Dollar value of crime - sliding scale centered around 5 years for $5 million - Plus

3. Abuse of public trust - 10 year surcharge - Plus

4. Intrinsic societal wrong - smoking pot in public 5 minutes, child rape 30 years, war crimes 40 years

[izquierdista]

8. Hold the Roquefort?

[KittyWampus]

9. meanwhile small farms and suppliers get screwed over while abiding by the rules.

[Kingofalldems]

11. The market-will-take-care-of-it repubs have no answer for this

Market worshipers duck for cover on this one.

[MisterP]

68. sure they do: it's "take your business elsewhere"

of course, it would be best to just have, you know, INSPECTORS ensuring that we never even have the choice of mold vs. tomato (and that's *gasp* a limitation of choice. but I'm Red, Green, and a filthy Papist, so what would I know). it's okay with them that a few thousand pets (or even people) suffer and die for the sake of the free market.

all the sarcastic gibing at small-government types won't work: one DUer delightfully remarked along the lines of, "why should there be a gub'mint protection of property? everyone should be left to guard and defend it on their own." That's EXACTLY the sort of world they want to live in, though they don't have the brains to figure out that even their farmhouse-bunkers can be cleaned out (e.g., if you host a party and they lock you in the restroom away from your safe and boomsticks)

their idols are Heinlein and Rand, whose books almost invariably end with "the culls died off, the creative elect survived, and that is how it must inescapably be"

[UpInArms]

14. PUT THE CORPORATIONS TO DEATH

I support the death penalty for corporate-persons.

[Moosepoop]

27. Me too...

but I'd also like to see these particular guys put in stocks and the public allowed to throw moldy tomatoes at them.

Or maybe the finished, canned product... }(

[jmowreader]

76. As long as you're talking the tomato company, and not Kraft

This buyer, and the tomato company he was buying from, fucked Kraft and all of us. I think a good sentence would be to order Kraft to fire him (if they haven't done it already, and they probably had), require him to reimburse the company for 300 percent of the difference between the briber's bid and the best bid, then federally bar the Kraft buyer, plus anyone at the tomato company who was in cahoots with this guy, from ever working in the food industry again at any level. I don't want the bastards wiping tables at McDonald's. (And yes there is precedent: when someone commits a serious-enough securities law violation, the SEC can bar you from working in the securities industry and they do it when necessary.

[UpInArms]

77. I agree, but when the Kraft lady says that they don't do

their own testing - they rely on others to do that - it doesn't give me the warm fuzzies - I would like to kow that someone is making certain that our food is made from food that is not tainted.

[jmowreader]

78. You'd think they WOULD do their own testing, but it makes sense for them not to

It's that "core competency" thing. It's less expensive, and in an ideal world it makes for better testing, to hire someone who does nothing but ingredient testing.

When the company is being bought off, that's not an ideal-world condition.

[KansDem]

17. So, tell me again why public-financed, public-option health care is off the table?

Why do we continue to believe the canard that corporations can do the job better and more efficiently, while having the best interests of the American consumer at heart?

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. And the Dept. of Agric. inspectors?

Where were they?

[WriteDown]

20. Living well off their bribes? nt

[brentspeak]

57. Do you have evidence that Dept of Agriculture inspectors take bribes?

Or do you just pop up to post a few snide RW-tinged observations before running off?

[WriteDown]

70. The truth isn't tinged by anything

http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/oig42.htm

[dixiegrrrrl]

72. Well done, sir. Well done.

:applause: :applause:

[kestrel91316]

33. Likely underfunded and overworked. Part of that "starve the beast" thing.....

[prairierose]

36. There are probably very few left. Certainly not enough to do the...

job for the safety of the public.

[Hestia]

40. yeah, where were the inspectors? Haven't we read where the former

administration didn't fund for inspectors? And the FBI white collar crimes were pushed to terrah terrah terrah? This is why we need a working government and we push that into every repugs face.

[WinkyDink]

64. You mean all four of them? It's quite the under-staffed inspection system.

Why I don't eat beef. Don't want the Mad Alzheimer's.

[lonestarnot]

19. Fucking assholes. Put them in a box.

[annm4peace]

21. not surprising. I'm sure this isn't the only case of bribes

the author of the article might want to check out Lyons Food in Fresno, CA. In fact they might want to check out many large fruit and vegetable processors in Central Ca.

Been told they having given bribes to the Union leaders to close their eyes to worker abuse so that would probably mean they also give bribes to buyers also, and wouldn't surprise me if they give bribes to inspectors.

Bush administration cut funding for inspections and probably put in unqualified people to inspect.. think of Heck of a Brownie.

I would be good if there was some in depth undercover investigative reporting.

[Blue_Tires]

22. call me cynical, but

i think when it's all said and done this will just end up as probation, a fine, and the company just changes its name...

[melm00se]

23. i wonder if

he declared the bribes on his tax returns?

as to Corporations:

this is the act of 1 person bribing to gain an upper hand in his business transaction.

No amount of regulation is going to prevent someone from attempting this activity - the death penalty? doesn't prevent murders from happening. long long long jail sentences? for non-violent crimes? sounds like what is happening for low level, non-violent drug offenses. why is it wrong for that but ok in this case?

[Mulehead]

24. The USDA is probably the most prime example

of "Administrative Capture", in which the industries supposedly overseen by a federal regulatory agency, and their lobbyists, "capture" the senior administrators and political appointees within the agency and end up rewriting the rules and regs to their advantage. This is how Monsanto pretty much got carte blanche from the USDA during the past 30 years to introduce Frankengenes into the nation's seed supply, CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations)and their prime by-product e coli, to pollute the watersheds within which they are located, and to basically scuttle any meaningful inspection and enforcement of big money gangsters like these POS. Same thing has happened to the FDA, EPA, and virtually every other federal agency you can think of. And the kkkorporate media is always the first to blame highly regulated and inspected, certified organic producers whenever an e coli in food outbreak happens, even though the e coli is invariably always traced back to largely unregulated and never inspected conventional growers who spray the shit from the unregulated CAFOs onto their fields.

These fucks should get lined up against a wall for a day and have a few million consumers come by and throw rotten tomatoes at 'em. And then give them a bath in the sludge pond of a CAFO.

I couldn't tell you the last time I ate a store bought tomato or ate a non-certified organic food product. I grow most of my family's vegetable and fruit foodstuffs in my suburban back yard and in our leased space in our community grow. If enough people stopped unconsciously buying this shit from corporations down at Theftway and instead turned to their local farmer's market or their community grow, these corporations would soon go belly up.

And before all you anti organic types flame me for being elitist, think about the fact that a much larger portion of your food dollar goes to a local organic grower than to a conventional grower who sits at the bottom of a huge extractive supply chain, and that organic food is not too expensive, its that corporate grown foods are too cheap, because they are largely subsidized by the feds through corporate welfare and the true cost of their products, for production, processing, transportation, middling, and environmental damage, is not passed directly onto consumers (it instead is collected on April 15th of each year). My wife and I probably spend a third of what most families spend for food and have a way healthier diet because we buy largely bulk, unprocessed and raw foods grown locally by people we have taken the time to get to know personally, and we do the labor of processing and growing our food ourselves. We try not to pay for packaging, transportation, convenience, corporate greed, or e coli and tomato mold.

[AllyCat]

39. Over the past few years, I have most definitely started down the same path as you

Last year we started growing more than patio tomatoes. This year, I have completely cleaned out disgusting basement and have it all set up to start my own seeds on a much bigger scale. I have people I am trading with: I will start melons, tomatoes, and peppers and a few flowers. Then I trade with other gardeners who are buying bulk organic carrot seeds, or starting herbs. We have a whole exchange going with about a half dozen other gardeners. My mother and MIL are going to show us how to can this year. We don't need the yard. It's a pain to mow and the kids prefer the park across the street. They LOVE the garden!! They are more excited than I to get things going. They are 4 and 2 and help me pull weeds and of course, pick the finished product.

Out of season, we buy local organic as much as possible. The taste difference is noticeable every time we go somewhere with trucked-across-the-country produce on the table. Zero flavor.

Part of the problem too, is that even the few regulatory agencies that maybe aren't run by the businesses they oversee have no money to investigate anything. Part of the issue with the Toyota mess is that NHTSA had no funds to investigate the problem despite years of reports of "stuck accelerators". I imagine the food industry is no different.

No flames from me. The more we buy "cheap" produce, the more it costs us.

[Mulehead]

65. Good for you, Good for the Planet!

The best part of growing and canning your own is the friends you make within your local foodshed. And the kidlets love picking and eating fresh snap peas and tomatoes right off the vine! Check out www.newfarm.org and www.farmstory.org for some useful info on growing your own food and your own community. You can also lightly blanch most veggies and freeze them too, which is way easier than canning, which is very worthwhile too. A good dehydrator is also incredibly valuable for drying tomatoes and fruit slices. I'm looking right now at more than 150 jars of various organic tomato sauces, pickled veggies, and garlic that my wife canned last year, which will last us well beyond our first harvest in July. Total cost? Some sweat, about $10 in seeds, and @$20 for a bunch of used mason jars picked up at various rummage sales and flea markets. Our yard was a barren field of crabgrass when we moved in; ten years later it's an eden of raised beds, dwarf fruit trees, rooftop irrigation system, chicken coops, and the three-bin recycled wood pallet composter way in the back. We routinely have planting, solstice, and harvest parties with other microfarming families in our local foodshed, at which we make music and share what we have grown and learned. While we hang outside in the garden all summer long (we sleep in a bower out back covered in squash vines most nights, the Stepfords in our hood stay cooped up behind their doors and windows in the AC and wonder why their kids get sick after the Chemlawn guy shows up.

As the song goes, "There's only two things that money can't buy, and that's True Love and homegrown tomatoes"!

Make hay while the sun shines, friend!

[AllyCat]

69. Chemlawn...ick!!! I just want to run out screaming when I see them.

And people PAY for that. Sounds liek you have a garden paradise. Ours is still in progress, but we just started. Thanks for the websites! We don't have AC either. It's nice outside.

[Ignis]

67. Great post.

You should post more often. :hi:

[DainBramaged]

25. SK was forced into bankruptcy and it's plants bought by the Chinese

frying pan meet fire.

[Locrian]

26. well obviously

>>Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, needed $20,000 to pay his taxes.

Well, the problem is obvious. It's TAXES. See, that's why this happens - what we need is more tax cuts.


:sarcasm:

[WriteDown]

30. The fact the he OWED 20K in taxes is amazing.

He may have wanted to check his W-4.

[deminks]

28. The "test"

from the OP article:

(snip)

It was Mr. Rahal who made the contacts with the four buyers who took bribes. He was caught on a wiretap in April 2008, promising to help Mr. Watson with his tax payment, according to court papers. In another conversation, reported by a witness, Mr. Rahal explained the art of ascertaining whether a person would be susceptible to bribery.

According to court papers, Mr. Rahal recounted how he would drop a $100 bill on the floor, then bend to pick it up, saying: “You must have dropped this. Is it yours?” If the person said yes, Mr. Rahal considered him receptive. Mr. Rahal pleaded guilty to racketeering, price fixing and money laundering charges in December 2008 and has been cooperating with investigators. His lawyer, Christopher D. Adams of New Jersey, did not respond to requests for comment.

(end snip)

emphasis mine

Until a lot of these jerks go to jail, it will just fester and fester and fester.

[Robbien]

42. On a Frontline

when Summers Etal interviewed a candidate for head of a fed reg enforcement agency they asked her her opinion on whether she felt that execs should be prosecuted for fraud and other crimes or whether she would let the market forces take care of their own problem children. She told Frontline that it was strongly stressed not to make it a practice to prosecute.



As the article states, if the top is riddled with greed and corruption it doesn't take long for the entire system to become infected.

[CanonRay]

29. Gee, I wonder what he was doing in Switzerland?

:shrug:

[Romulox]

38. Gee, I wonder if this could happen in the profit-driven medical field? Hmmm... nt

[athenasatanjesus]

45. This never happened

The free market inspires the top people of our society to produce the best products PERIOD!!

[robcon]

48. The USDA are just as corrupt as private companies.

I worked at a beef processing plant. The head inspector was accused of sexual harassment of an employee. He shut down the plant (on false claims) in peak season as a threat against bringing up the complaint. The abused employee had to be bought off, so she wouldn't complain. Just as a warning, the guy shut down the plant two other times.

[fasttense]

52. That comes from contracting out once well paid government jobs.

Now, the state and federal government contract out inspection requirements and the inspectee pays (off?) the inspector.

When I had the state come out and inspect my farm, I had to pay for the inspection. The inspector told me he worked for a contractor who bills the State. The contractor establishes the cost of the inspection and the inspector's salary is based on how many inspections he makes.

There is the incentive to do more inspections, increase the cost of those inspections and to favor the inspectee cause he's paying the bill.

[Iggo]

53. Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me!

:P

[L. Coyote]

50. http://www.opensecrets.org knows everything! These are Republicans at work!

SALYER, FREDERICK
MONTEREY,CA 93940	SK FOODS GROUP/CEO	7/9/08	$1,000	Inhofe, James M (R)
SAYLER, FREDERICK
MONTEREY,CA 93940	SK FOODS/OWNER	5/22/06	$1,000	21st Century Freedom PAC (R)
SALYER, SCOTT
MONTEREY,CA 93940	SK FOODS	2/6/95	$600	Lincoln Club of Northern California
SALYER, SCOTT
MONTEREY,CA 93940	SK FOODS/OWNER	2/6/06	$500	Lungren, Dan (R) 

Apparently, the middle men are not getting much money!
Ahh, the problem of bribes/money going directly to the power point! = not lining the pockets of those who can put you in jail!!!! :rofl:

http://www.opensecrets.org

[KamaAina]

55. Upton Sinclair, pickup on Line 1

Upton Sinclair, line 1...

[bertman]

73. nice

:rofl: :rofl:

[Laplase]

58. Talk talk talk

When are you going to do something about it?

Why is it so difficult for us to organize. Are we really that lazy?

[Hekate]

81. *This* is your first post? What do you suggest "we" do about it? YOU pick up the phone and call...

... YOUR Senators and Representatives, both State and US. YOU write a letter to the editor of your local papers. YOU write to the tv news stations and ask why they are not reporting on this. YOU encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. And YOU work to get Democrats elected.

Because, buddy, THIS abomination (and many more) was the work of BUSH.

Welcome to DU, by the way.

Hekate

[Quantess]

83. I see... You like to nag.

Welcome to DU, I guess.

[WinkyDink]

60. Not to worry! China has now surpassed us as the world's largest food-producer! :-)

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hekate]

62. Deregulation at work....

When only cusswords will do....

:wow: :argh: :banghead: :rant:

Food poisoning ....

:wtf: :freak: :puke: :hurts:

[Quantess]

66. The film "The Corporation"

I watched the first half last night. Everyone needs to watch it.
In the Political Videos forum, someone posted a link to the full length film.

[bertman]

74. This kind of thing happens at EVERY level of commerce. It's not confined to big corporations;

although, the dollar amounts are larger in big businesses because the volume of sales is larger. There are people who are willing and even eager to bribe, steal, cheat, and lie their way to more money in every city, state, and nation.

I agree 100% that more regulation of commerce is needed, but to lay this problem solely on big bidness is wrong. It's a people problem.

Rec.

[tonekat]

75. Now do you see why we need government oversight??

When will people learn, if you leave corporations to self regulate, corruption enters the picture pretty rapidly...and predictably.

[depakid]

82. More like the need for accountability- and that includes corrupt government officials

who (are paid to) look the other way.

SEC
NHTSA
FDA
Dept. of Ag
_____________ (fill in the regulatory agency).