Fed probe of SK Foods nets senior VP

A federal crackdown on the company that once owned a Williams tomato cannery has ensnared its highest ranking suspect, who is expected to admit to aiding a price-fixing plot.

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced that Alan Scott Huey, former senior vice president of SK Foods LP, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy and will cooperate with a federal investigation into the tomato-packing industry. He is expected to enter the plea Nov. 17 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

The 54-year-old Huey, a Monterey resident, faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

The FBI raided SK Foods' tomato plants in April 2008, and a federal lawsuit four months later accused the firm of bribing buyers at food processing companies to buy its tomato paste at inflated prices, shutting out competitors. The paste forms the base for soups, pasta sauces, salsas and other prepared foods.

Seven other people, including a former SK Foods vice president and employees of Kraft and Frito-Lay, have already pleaded guilty in connection with the payoff scheme.

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges against Huey for allegedly falsifying quality-control records and expiration dates at the canneries to conceal high levels of mold in the company's tomato products.

SK Foods later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sold its canneries in Williams and Lemoore to Olam International Limited, based in Singapore.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.