Plastic shards began showing up inside the chicken tenders in late 2016 almost immediately after they were added to the lunch menu for New York City public schools.
The Department of Education’s Office of Food and Nutrition Services, known as SchoolFood, stopped serving them, but cautiously allowed the tenders back on the menu a few weeks later.
Soon after that, a school employee choked on a bone, and the tenders — which were supposed to be boneless — were off the menu again.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said that the tainted tenders were once again restored to menus thanks to a scheme involving almost $100,000 in bribes that the owners of Somma, a Texas-based food company that provided the chicken, paid to SchoolFood’s now-former chief executive.
That executive, Eric Goldstein, and three Somma executives — Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey — were convicted last summer of offenses including conspiracy and wire fraud connected to that arrangement.
On Monday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Judge Denny Chin sentenced them all to prison: two years for Mr. Goldstein; a year and three months each for Mr. Turley and Mr. Twomey; a year and a day for Mr. Iler.
Before they were sentenced, three of the four men addressed the court. “I understand now why our business relationship was a terrible mistake,” Mr. Turley said. Mr. Iler said, “Looking back, I feel extremely foolish for the decisions that I made.”
Mr. Goldstein gave a short statement, apologizing to his family and friends, who he said had “suffered tremendously.”
Judge Chin said the defendants had committed “serious, brazen” crimes, adding: “This was a substantial breach of the public trust.”
Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement after the sentencing that Mr. Goldstein had “pursued lucrative bribes at the expense of schoolchildren.”
Lawyers for all four defendants had asked for leniency and no prison time. Mr. Goldstein’s lawyer, Neil P. Kelly, said that his client had not been induced by the money from Somma and had made decisions based upon only what he thought was right.
“Mr. Goldstein pushed for healthier food,” Mr. Kelly said.
But a prosecutor, Robert Polemeni, had asked Judge Chin that each defendant receive a “significant term of imprisonment,” saying that Mr. Goldstein had abused his position to accept bribes and that the Somma executives had hoped to use the school system in New York City as a springboard to provide food to schools in other large cities like Los Angeles and Dallas.
“The public is the victim here,” Mr. Polemeni added.
A multiweek trial last year included nauseating evidence, such as photographs that showed a drumstick tinged with what appeared to be a bright red liquid.
Mr. Iler, Mr. Turley and Mr. Twomey founded Somma in early 2015. Around the same time, according to prosecutors, they joined Mr. Goldstein and another partner to start a company called Range Meats Supply Company. Mr. Goldstein was then overseeing SchoolFood, which manages breakfast and lunch operations for the city’s public schools. His 20 percent share in Range Meats was kept hidden, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Goldstein and his co-defendants participated in an “overarching quid pro quo.” The Somma executives transferred about $96,000 to Range Meats for Mr. Goldstein’s benefit, including payments to his divorce attorney and father, prosecutors said. In exchange, they added, Mr. Goldstein ensured that the Department of Education bought and served Somma’s food to thousands of schoolchildren.
The largest payment from Somma to Goldstein came after the school employee choked on the bone. After that food was removed from school menus, Somma executives agreed to transfer that company’s ownership interest in Range Meats to Mr. Goldstein as well as about $66,000 to a bank account in Range Meats’s name that he had opened and controlled.
A day after Mr. Iler, Mr. Turley and Mr. Twomey agreed to make that payment, prosecutors said, Mr. Goldstein approved the reintroduction of Somma’s chicken products in schools.
Somma food was served in schools until April 2017, when it was removed for good after repeated complaints that the tenders continued to contain foreign objects.
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