Former Penn Traffic Executives Sentenced

MARK HAMSTRA

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two former Penn Traffic executives who had pleaded guilty to artificially inflating the company's financial performance have been sentenced to 14 months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York.

Linda Jones, 50, former vice president of non-perishables merchandising, and Leslie Knox, 63, the former senior vice president and chief marketing officer, will also each pay $10,000 in fines and be subject to two years of supervised release following their prison sentences. They are scheduled to report to prison June 29.

Prosecutors said Jones and Knox organized a scheme to prematurely recognize more than $9 million in vendor allowances between 2000 and 2003, inflating Penn Traffic's reported earnings. According to statements by the Securities and Exchange Commission when the two were first charged, Knox and Jones lied to accounting personnel at the company and submitted false invoices to hide the scheme.

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