Children across the country depend on the National School Lunch Program to provide them with a healthy meal each day, so we all depend on companies providing food to the program to follow the rules designed to ensure those meals are safe to eat.
The Justice Department announced today that several California companies and individuals that formerly supplied beef to the National School Lunch Program have agreed to settle allegations of inhumane handling of cattle, circumventing appropriate inspection of nonambulatory disabled (“downer”) cattle and false representations regarding their eligibility to process beef.
Westland Meat Co., based in Corona Del Mar, Calif., and its owner Steve Mendell will pay $240,000, and Westland will enter into a consent judgment for $155.68 million.
The settlements will conclude a lawsuit initiated by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) after an HSUS investigator videotaped alleged inhumane cattle handling and improper downer cattle inspection practices at the slaughterhouse and meat processing facility of Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif.
The National School Lunch Program, administered by the USDA, is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child-care institutions. The program provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. All ground beef containing the defendants’ products was recalled as of Feb. 16, 2008, and the defendants no longer supply beef to the National School Lunch Program.
Under the settlements, M&M Management, also based in Corona Del Mar, Calif., and Cattleman’s Choice, based in Commerce, Calif., and the estate of Cattleman’s deceased owner, Arnie Magidow, and Magidow’s surviving spouse will pay a total of approximately $2.45 million.
“The contractors who supply beef and other meat products to schools and child-care facilities have a responsibility to provide our nation’s young people with products that come only from healthy and humanely handled animals,” said U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California André Birotte Jr.
Mandatory Facts:
Defendant: Westland Meat Co.
Crime: Inhumane handling of cattle, circumventing inspection of nonambulatory disabled (“downer”) cattle and false representations regarding eligibility to process beef.
City and State: Corona Del Mar, California
Date: 2008
Sentence or Outcome: $240,000 fine and $155.68 million consent judgment
Dollar Amounts: $240,000 and $155.68 million
Related Federal Cases
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
White Collar CrimeWhite Collar CrimeWhite Collar CrimeWhite Collar Crime