Another long-time food company executive is headed to federal prison.
William B. Aossey Jr., the founder and long-time chief executive of Iowa’s Midamar Corp., was sentenced today to two years in a federal prison yet to be assigned, followed by three years of supervised probation. Linda R. Reade, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for Northern Iowa, also imposed a $60,000 fine and $1,500 special assessment on Aossey. Aossey has been in custody since Last July when a Cedar Rapids jury found him guilty on 15 of 19 counts. From a location in north central Iowa, usually thought of as being part of the “Bible Belt,” Aossey grew Midamar Corp. into a world-scale supplier of Halal foods for the Muslim marketplace. But in fulfilling orders before he left the company to his sons, Aossey directed a scheme to carve out USDA establishment numbers on beef produced at plant not approved to export to counties where Midamar was being pressed to fulfill Halal beef orders. Judge Reade structured the sentence by imposing a 24-month penalty on each of the 15 counts, but then permitted Aossey to serve the time concurrently. She also allowed the three years of supervised release to be served concurrently. With credit for time served, Aossey’s release date will likely be in July 2017.
