Canadian Company Pleads Guilty to Importing Medicated Cattle Feed
A Quebec cattle feed brokerage and manufacturing company pleaded guilty to two felony counts related to illegal imports, said a press release from the Office of the United States Attorney (USAO) for the District of Vermont (here). Yves Bolduc, president of Meunerie Sawyerville, entered the guilty pleas for the company on July 8, said the USAO. The charges include "one felony count of making a false statement to Customs and Border Protection officials, and one felony count of fraudulently causing the cattle feed drug monensin to be introduced into interstate commerce at a level of concentration significantly higher than that allowed by the Food and Drug Administration," Vermont's USAO said.
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In September 2012, Bolduc instructed a Meunerie Sawyerville truckload of cattle feed contaminated with the regulated drug monensin "at a concentration above that allowed by the FDA and 200% above the amount on the feed label" be delivered to a Vermont farmer, disregarding U.S. orders to hold it at the border pending testing from the FDA, said Vermont's USAO. The farmer was not informed that the FDA sampled the feed and ordered it held, and the Vermont cows consumed the medicated feed, the press release said. Bolduc then "engineered a plan" to use a "sham shipment" of cattle feed to imitate the contaminated feed, said the USAO. After a redelivery request from CBP, Bolduc submitted the imitation delivery along with false customs documentation, Vermont's USAO said. Although the final sentence will have to adhere to federal sentencing guidelines, the company agreed to pay a fine of $80,000 and probation for one year.