Nice Tomatoes!

De-vine intervention? Pick-its everywhere? Will all this nastiness catsup to us sooner or later? Or is this just down and dirty bribery and corruption? Tomatoes? Come on?! Think I’m just cherry-picking my subjects? But there it is in red and white: “Amid concerns about corrupt practices in the food industry, nine people have pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering, money laundering and bid-rigging in a federal probe of SK Foods.” February 8^th Los Angeles Times. The charges appear to be that tomato salesmen routinely peeled of hundred dollar bills to convince produce buyers at various companies to buy their tomatoes at their prices, substituting lower quality products for the more expensive higher grades, inevitably kicking up the price that consumers pay for all sorts of tomato products. I am sure you blanched when you read this, but there it is, and the U.S. Department of Justice is taking action. Think this was an F.B.I. plant? Global worming?

Hey, youse guys, wanna buy a hot tomato? Bent-nose mobsters or travelling salesmen? It sounds like business on half the planet… they way emerging nations well… emerge. We’re looking at the tip of the iceberg… lettuce that is. SK Foods of Monterrey, CA is at the heart of this investigation: “In a series of court filings starting in 2008, federal prosecutors in Sacramento allege that [one salesman, Randall Lee Rahal], nine others and SK Foods of Monterey, Calif., used more than $330,000 in bribes from 1998 to 2008 to subvert competition and nail down deals to sell the company's tomato paste, peppers and other products to Kraft Foods Inc., Safeway Inc., Frito-Lay North America and B&G Foods, among others… All but one of the individuals have pleaded guilty to offenses typically associated with organized crime: racketeering, collusion, bribery, money laundering and bid-rigging. Five of the people worked for SK Foods; four were employed by its customers. SK Foods' sales plummeted as the case unfolded and it was sold out of Bankruptcy Court last year to a Singapore firm…Rahal -- who pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and conspiring to eliminate competition -- faces up to 20 years in prison at his scheduled sentencing in May. Neither Rahal, who was a sales broker and a director of the company, nor his attorney could be reached for comment.” The Times.

Some of the payments were purportedly actually by check, others involved alleged payments for medical insurance for a buyer’s kid (and you thought this wasn’t a blog about the rising cost of healthcare!). What a terrible way for these salesmen to spend their salad days (hey, Shakespeare buffs!), maybe they just need a good dressing down! Who knows what a jury might find… could just be a toss-up! What’s next? Asparagus? Some F.B.I. agent acting on a tip? Oy, sorry about this, and actually, it is bad news, but the really amazing thing about this is that while these “crooks” might get 20 years for their market manipulation, just think how they would be punished on Wall Street for a much greater market manipulation and infliction of extreme financial damage. Heck, they could be pummeled by a pomodoro of excess bonus payments! They could be force to upgrade to first class travel or… wait for it… wait for it, their own private jet… and be required – strictly for business image purposes – to add a house in the Hamptons this year. Oh, the pain… but they can read about tomato salesmen during hard time in a medium security federal penitentiary. Feel the jealousy, eh? Guess we know who has the juice in Washington; the Department of Justice would rather be a crop buster!

I’m Peter Dekom, a lawyer, and I am just wondering exactly what justice really is these days?