U.S.
Agriculture Department (USDA) investigations contributed to the
recovery of $700 million, more than half of which came from a variety of
scammers, Grist reported on Tuesday.The department's Inspector
General, Phyllis Fong, detailed several of USDA investigations late
last week while testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee.
In
one investigation, Fong's office ordered the shuttering of a
California-based meat processing plant, the Rancho Feeding Corp, after
discovering that a foreman, 55-year-old Felix Cabrera had employees
remove stamps marking some dead cattle as "USDA Condemned." Cabrera was
reportedly acting on the orders of one of the plant's owners,
76-year-old Jesse Amaral, Jr.
"[Amaral] further instructed
[Cabrera] to circumvent inspection procedures for certain cows with
'cancer eye,' an illness that results in unsightly tumors on cows' eyes
and eyelids," Fong testified. "[Cabrera], or another employee at his
instruction, placed the heads from apparently healthy cows next to the
bodies of cows with cancer eye. This switch and slaughter of uninspected
cows with cancer eye occurred during the FSIS inspector's lunch breaks,
a time during which plant operations were supposed to cease."
As
the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reported last August, Amaral and his
co-owner, 77-year-old Robert Singleton, were indicted in connection with
the deception. Fong testified that Amaral, Cabrera and another employee
pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy under the Federal Meat
Inspection Act and of distributing "adulterated, misbranded, and
uninspected meat."
She also testified that her investigators
recovered $77 million in cases involving false benefits claims for the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as
"food stamps." One case led to the disbanding of a group of 54 people in
Georgia who opened several stores in order to falsely pocket more than
$18 million in vouchers for the federal Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC) food assistance program.
"This case was especially
noteworthy because, unlike most food assistance cases, which tend to
involve white-collar criminals, this Georgia criminal ring was operated
by drug dealers who had turned to WIC fraud as a safer and more
profitable activity," Fong said, noting that 14 of the people involved
have pled guilty in connection with the scam.
Members of the
group "canvassed" neighborhoods and bought benefits from actual program
participants for "pennies on the dollar," she testified.
In
total, Fong said her office's investigations recovered $374.6 million
for the department, while a department audit helped recover another
$325.4 million last year..
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