Las Vegas company to plead guilty in toxic pet food case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Las Vegas-based company and its owners have agreed to plead guilty in connection with tainted pet food that may have killed thousands of dogs and cats in 2007.
An attorney for Stephen Miller. co-owner of ChemNutra, filed documents last week in federal court in Kansas City saying Miller had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and would plead guilty plea at a hearing June 16.
Miller's wife, Sally Miller, and ChemNutra also planned to plead guilty.
Attorneys did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said the office couldn't discuss any plea agreement until it had been approved by a judge.
The Millers and ChemNutra, along with two Chinese companies, were indicted in February 2008 on charges alleging they imported wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine, which was then sold to pet food makers.
Pet owners reported thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill or dying after eating the tainted food.
ChemNutra, which imports ingredients from China to the U.S. for the feed and food industries, and the Millers were charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 misdemeanor counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce and one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products Arts and Crafts I/E Co. were also indicted.
The indictments alleged that Suzhou Textiles, an export broker, mislabeled 800 metric tons of tainted wheat gluten manufactured by Xuzhou to avoid inspection in China. Suzhou then did not properly declare the contaminated product it shipped to the U.S. as a material to be used in food, the indictment said.
According to the indictment, ChemNutra picked up the melamine-tainted product at a port of entry in Kansas City, then sold it to makers of various brands of pet foods. The indictment alleges that Xuzhou added the melamine to artificially boost the protein content of the gluten to meet the requirements specified in Suzhou's contract with ChemNutra.
