3 Companies Indicted In Pet Food Case

WTOP News ^ | February 6, 2008 | AP

[khnyny]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted Wednesday in the tainted pet food incidents that killed dozens of animals last year and raised worries about products made in China.

Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co., and Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. were charged in two separate but related indictments. The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City said the tainted food led to the death and serious illness of pets in the U.S. last year.

One of the indictments charges Xuzhou Anying Biologic, located in China's Jiangsu Province, and Suzhou Textiles, in Suzhou, China, with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce and 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce.

ChemNutra and company owners Sally Quing Miller, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller were charged with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The indictments allege that Suzhou Textiles, an export broker, mislabeled 800 metric tons of wheat gluten tainted with the toxic chemical melamine to avoid inspection in China. Xuzhou then did not properly declare the contaminated product it shipped to the U.S. as a material to be used in food, the indictment says.

It also says the shipment was falsely declared to the Chinese government in a way that would avoid a mandatory inspection of the company's plants.

[JACKRUSSELL]

(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)

[Tai_Chung]

The article does not mention the potential penalties if convicted on all counts.

[khnyny]

I think it’s the death penalty.:)

[LiberConservative]

ChiComs can’t even get pet food right.

[jcparks]

If they had charged them with “Animal Cruelty”, we’d never see them again.

[rednek]

someone please explain the benefit of a criminal indictmnt . This makes zero sense!! Indict, then convict a person and put him in jail. Indict and then convict a corporation....then what? Sounds like a waste of time and traxpayers money to me. Go find the sob responsible and throw his @$$ under the jail is a real answer.

regards - red

[DJ MacWoW]

Each of the felony counts against the Chinese defendants is punishable by up to three years in prison, according to the indictment. The misdemeanor charges against ChemNutra and its owners are each punishable by up to a year in prison, while the felony conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of five years.