AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Blue Bell's former president and CEO, Paul Kruse, has been charged with seven felony counts related to alleged efforts to cover up the company's 2015 listeria outbreak, while the company agreed to plead guilty to charges it shipped the contaminated products during the outbreak.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced an agreement with Blue Bell Creameries L.P. on Friday, in which the company agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products, paying a criminal fine of $17.25 million. The agency said Blue Bell also agreed to pay an additional $2.1 million to resolve civil False Claims Act allegations regarding ice cream products manufactured under insanitary conditions and sold to federal facilities.
DOJ officials say the $19.35 million total is the second largest-ever amount paid to resolve a food safety matter.
According to the allegations filed against Kruse, who retired from Blue Bell three years ago, prosecutors say he allegedly orchestrated a scheme to deceive certain Blue Bell customers after he learned that products from the company’s Texas factory tested positive for listeria. Kruse specifically is asserted to have directed other Blue Bell employees to remove potentially contaminated products from store freezers without notifying retailers or consumers about the real reason for the withdrawal. Kruse also is alleged to have directed employees to tell customers who asked why products were removed that there had been an unspecified issue with a manufacturing machine, instead of that samples of the products had tested positive for listeria.
Kruse is charged with wire fraud, attempted wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each charge holds a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
The contamination and outbreak led to the hospitalization of 10 people and three deaths. Blue Bell temporarily closed all of its plants in late April 2015 to clean and update their facilities, and recalled more than 8 million gallons of ice cream.