Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the former owner and several employees of a now-defunct peanut company that was the source of a salmonella outbreak in 2009 that killed nine people and sickened more than 700.
In a 76-count indictment unsealed on Wednesday, investigators charged Stewart Parnell, 58, the former owner of the Peanut Corporation of America, or P.C.A., with criminal fraud and conspiracy, for his role in what they said was a scheme to ship peanut products known to be contaminated to customers in states across the country.
The salmonella outbreak was one of the deadliest in United States history, resulting in recalls of thousands of products made by more than 300 companies, according to Food Safety News.
The law firm representing Mr. Parnell said it was disappointed by the indictment. "As this matter progresses it will become clear that Mr. Parnell never intentionally shipped or intentionally caused to be shipped any tainted food products capable of harming P.C.A.'s customers," said a statement from the firm, Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said it was unusual for the federal government to pursue criminal charges in food safety cases, which usually involve negligence. But in this case, federal prosecutors said there was evidence that the defendants knowingly shipped products that had been contaminated or never tested, and misled customers and federal agents about it.
Michael Moore, United States attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, said in a statement that the defendants "cared less about the quality of the food they were providing to the American people and more about the quantity of money they were gathering while disregarding food safety."
The indictment said that Mr. Parnell and three other people, two of them employees and one of them a broker associated with the company, who is also Mr. Parnell's brother, misled customers about the quality of the company's peanut products. A fifth person pleaded guilty in a separate filing connected to the case.
When laboratory testing revealed the presence of salmonella in peanut products from a plant in Blakely, Ga., the indicted people did not notify customers of the results, according to the indictment.
The indictment also described a scheme to fabricate so-called certificates of analysis that accompanied shipments to summarize for customers the results of tests on the products. On several occasions, the indictment contended, employees stated that shipments were safe, when in fact they were contaminated or had not been tested at all.
The company had gross sales totaling about $30 million in 2008, according to the indictment. It filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
The indictment quoted from what prosecutors said were e-mails from the defendants. When an employee said in an e-mail in 2007 that containers of peanut meal were covered in dust and rat feces, Mr. Parnell's response was, "Clean em' all up and ship them."
In another e-mail in 2008, Mr. Parnell scolded employees for wasting peanuts, saying, "These are not peanuts you are throwing away every day, it is money, it is money," according to the indictment.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 21, 2013
An earlier version of this article rendered incorrectly part of the name of the law firm representing Stewart Parnell. The firm is Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, not entry Locke Rakes & Moore.
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