FORMER FDA INSPECTOR CONVICTED OF BRIBE-TAKING

JOYCE BARRETT

WASHINGTON (FNS) -- Former Food and Drug Administration inspector Roberto Vaccaro was convicted May 31 of taking bribes to allow contaminated seafood into the United States.

According to the U.S. attorney's office in Newark, N.J., Vaccaro was convicted of one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and FDA, eight counts of bribery and one count of importing seafood previously rejected by FDA. He is to be sentenced Aug. 11, and could receive up to 130 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Vaccaro is one of 12 people, including Customs brokers and importers, who pleaded guilty or were convicted as a result of a long-term investigation by the Customs Service. The prosecutions were based on two patterns of unlawful conduct: bribing FDA employees to evade the FDA's screening process of imported food; and submission of false invoices to import seafood that was subject to a high risk of random sampling by the FDA. Seafood importer Thekkedajh Peethamb Menon was convicted earlier in May of reimporting more than 31,000 pounds of shrimp that were earlier found to contain salmonella and were rejected by FDA when Menon initially imported them. He was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and a $50,000 fine.