NOVEMBER 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 11
N A M E S I N T H E N E W S
NOVEMBER 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 11
N A M E S I N T H E N E W S
A STRAWBERRY DISTRIBUTOR and its president pled guilty in November to crimes in connection with the March 1997 hepatitis outbreak that contaminated 198 school children and teachers in Michigan, Maine and Wisconsin. Andrew and Williamson Sales Co. (A&W), and its president, Frederick Williamson, admitted their role in the fraudulent sale of 1.7 million pounds of Mexican grown strawberries to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's school lunch program.
As part of a parallel civil settlement, the company agreed to pay the government $1.3 million.
Last week's guilty pleas, along with the May 21, 1997 guilty plea of Richard Kershaw, the sales representative in charge of A&W's frozen strawberry business, end the government's probe into the sale of strawberries that caused the Hepatitis A outbreak.
"We have to be vigilant in pursuing those who harm our nation's children," said Attorney General Janet Reno in announcing the guilty pleas. "I am pleased we were able to work quickly and effectively with the Agriculture Department and others to achieve a proper resolution."
The indictment charged A&W with attempting to disguise the fact that the strawberries it was supplying to the USDA were not grown domestically.
The plea exposes Williamson to a prison term of up to 15 years and requires the company to pay a $200,000 criminal fine.
The firm also remains responsible for the removal and safe disposal of 916,380 pounds of unconsumed frozen strawberries sold to the USDA.
One A&W official said the government's charges stemmed from "a single transaction in a minor and now-discontinued segment of our business -- it is and was an anomaly that will not be repeated."
IN WHAT MAY BE THE LARGEST corporate embezzlement case in U.S. history, a southern California man who ran a U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese multinational corporation was sentenced in November to more than five years in federal prison for embezzling $60 million from his company. "It seems remarkable that the sentencing guidelines, as stringent as they are in other areas, only permit a sentence of this amount for something as extraordinary as this case," said U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson in handing down the sentence on Yasuyoshi Kato.
Kato, the former chief financial officer of Day Lee Foods, Inc., was sentenced after admitting that he embezzled from his former employer from 1991 into 1997.
Judge Wilson sentenced Kato to 63 months of imprisonment. Federal law requires defendants to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. Additionally, Kato was ordered to pay more than $60 million in restitution to the principal victim of his fraud, Day Lee Foods, which is a subsidiary of Nippon Meats.
On July 2, 1997, Kato pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and two counts of false statements in a tax return.
WORKING IN A NURSING HOME CAN BE DANGEROUs to your health. Of the 20 fastest-growing industries in the United States, nursing homes have the highest rate of occupational illness and injury, a November study issued by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) found.
"There is a real crisis brewing in our nursing homes," says SEIU President Andrew Stern. SEIU represents approximately 100,000 nursing home workers across the country.
The study found that more than 18 percent of all nursing home workers are injured or become ill on the job each year. In 1995, the nursing home industry reported a quarter of a million injuries on the job.
And the rate of injury is growing. Occupational illness and injury rates of nursing home workers increased 57 percent since 1984. In 1994, the injury rate cost the nursing home industry approximately $1 billion in workers' compensation costs.
Stern said that as hospitals rush to cut costs, more "medically complex residents" are being sent to nursing homes. Yet staffing levels have not kept pace with the increased workload, the study found. "The result is an increase in injuries to healthcare workers and a decrease in care to our nation's elderly," Stern said.
According to the study, most injuries occur as nurses aides are forced to lift residents alone because of chronic understaffing. Nurses aides, who provide most of the care in nursing homes.
The study found that back and trunk injuries account for half of all injuries to nurses aides working in nursing homes. Many of the injuries are serious enough to warrant time off, creating even more of a staff shortage, which leads to more injuries. A lack of training and proper lifting equipment are other contributing factors.
"Instead of improving staffing or committing themselves to comprehensive programs which include training and equipment, many employers encourage employees not to report injuries," Stern says.
Stern calls on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to expand and improve its program to help nursing home employers and workers reduce safety risks. He also calls on OSHA to establish lifting standards for private sector workers that include specific guidelines for nursing home workers.
-- Russell Mokhiber