The Nation : Firm Fined in Meat Fraud

A federal judge in Boston fined a Connecticut firm $500,000 and sentenced a former meat inspector to two years in prison for defrauding federal school lunch programs in 10 states of more than 1 million pounds of beef over three years. District Judge A. David Mazzone fined Idle Wild Farm Inc. of Pomfret Center, and sentenced James Niddrie, 52, of Worcester. Idle Wild also paid the government $2.6 million as part of a civil settlement. Prosecutors said the government sent its meat to a subsidiary of Idle Wild and it was then diverted from school lunch programs, using vegetable fillers as substitutes.