Nine persons have agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiring with executives of US Foodservice, a unit of Dutch supermarket giant Royal Ahold.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the vendors face charges of creating false account records in a plot that allowed USF to inflate earnings by more than $800 million.
The vendors are Michael Rogers of Tyson Foods Inc; Mark Bailin of Rymer International Seafood; Timothy Daly of Michael Foods; Peter Marion of Maritime Seafood Processors and First Choice Foods; John Nettle, a former General Mills employee; Kenneth Bowman, an independent contractor for Total Food Sales Inc; Michael Hannigan of Sugar Foods Corp; Gordon Redgate of Commodity Manager Inc and Private Label Distribution; and Bruce Robinson of Basic American Foods.
They are charged with working for firms that sold food and food-related products to USF. They pleaded guilty to signing false audit confirmation letters that overstated amounts earned by or owed to USF.