The new Department of Justice’s official guidance for holding individuals responsible for corporate wrongdoing will be honored in the breach tomorrow in a federal courtroom in Albany, GA. Instead, any concern about holding individual responsible for wrongdoing will likely be swept aside with a corporate payment of the largest criminal fine ever in a U.S.…
Judge moves to wrap-up final act in case of Peter Pan outbreak
The judge who knows the more about poison peanut butter than anyone else on the federal bench wants to know what’s up with Peter Pan. Judge W. Louis Sands of the U.S District Court of the Middle District of Georgia gave the government until March 24 to determine the status of U.S. v ConAgra Grocery…
ConAgra Agrees to Pay $11.2 Million for Salmonella Outbreak
Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc. has reached a plea agreement with U.S. attorneys that will see its ConAgra Grocery Products Company plead guilty to a single misdemeanor violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. If accepted by the U.S. District Court in Albany, GA, the plea agreement will end the government’s investigation into the…
DeCosters Plead Guilty; Defense Claims Jail Time Would be Unconstitutional
The sentencing of 79-year-old Austin “Jack” DeCoster and his 51-year-old son, Peter DeCoster, still remains to be done, and it is going to be a little more complicated than originally thought. That is the major takeaway from a federal courtroom in Sioux City, IA, where everything else went down Tuesday entirely as expected. The two…
Big Fine and Guilty Pleas Might Keep DeCosters Out of Jail
Austin “Jack” DeCoster and his son, Peter DeCoster, will accept some responsibility today for their contaminated eggs, which made almost 62,000 people sick four years ago, but don’t look for either man to serve much in the way of jail time. 
Plea agreement details released ahead of today’s federal magistrate hearing in Sioux City, IA,…
Plea Agreement Could End Jensen Farms Prosecution on Oct. 22
Eric and Ryan Jensen have requested a “change of plea hearing” from the U.S. District Court in Denver, announcing through their attorneys that a disposition has been reached in the case. The two brothers are charged in connection with one of the most deadly outbreaks of foodborne illness in U.S. history. The request means that,…
Plea Agreement Means Kilgore Will Have Star Role at PCA Criminal Trial
Daniel Kilgore, the former Peanut Corporation of America operations manager at Blakely, GA, will likely be the government’s star witness next February when the criminal trial of peanut executives gets under way. Kilgore is now the man in the shadows, where he has waited since entering into a plea agreement with the government for the…