Man Charged for Corruption in the Tomato Industry
By Vanessa Richins
Apparently, Randall Lee Rahal couldn’t sell tomatoes without resorting to illegal methods.
Charges–including racketeering, price fixing, bid rigging and contract allocation, and with money laundering– were filed against him on December 10th, 2008 in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California.
Rahal, the president of a New Jersey wholesale company named Intramark, worked as the sales broker for SK Foods in California, which sold processed tomato products.
The charges filed state that Rahal had the consent of the company to offer bribes to the food buyers so they would choose SK foods over the competitors. These bribes allowed SK Foods to charge higher prices than the competition. They also used these monetary gifts to get the buyers to disclose the prices of their competitors.
It wasn’t just bribes, though. Rahal got into money laundering when he gave false information to SK Food’s customers. Some products sold to customers didn’t match the quality specifications that the customers wanted. There was also price fixing and other racketeering.
“This conduct deprived the purchasers of processed tomato products of the benefits of a competitive marketplace, ultimately causing American consumers to pay higher prices for these everyday staples,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Deborah A. Garza. “The Antitrust Division will continue to prosecute vigorously those who defraud American consumers.”
Rahal will plead guilty to all of the charges and assist the government with their investigation of the matter. He will also give up $600,000. He could get up to 40 years in prison and pay fines also.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:12 am
This is funny, stupid and sad at the same time. The kind of tactics people get into to sell products are getting outrageous by the day. I wonder what next…