No Hero’s Welcome After a Job Well-Done

In the world of law enforcement, the state Bureau of Market Enforcement will never be ranked up there with the FBI, Scotland Yard or even the local police.

Charles Raborn and Carolyn Walker, two of the bureau’s investigators, found that out after they worked on the largest case ever undertaken by this obscure arm of the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

They did a good job, and the bureaucracy made them pay the price.

On loan to federal prosecutors in Fresno, Raborn and Walker studied thousands of invoices and computer entries and helped put together a major fraud case against subsidiaries of a multinational food processor, Christian Salvesen, and a Los Angeles food broker, Cal Fruit, who did business with San Joaquin Valley farmers.

Their efforts resulted in three indictments, with more likely. In Fresno, the U.S. attorney and county district attorney heaped praise on Raborn and Walker. FBI Director William S. Sessions told state Agriculture Director Henry Voss in a letter that Raborn and Walker “deserve high praise for their exceptional efforts.”

But when their roles in the investigation came to an end, and they returned to Sacramento, there was no hero’s welcome. Instead, the reaction was one all too common when workers rise above the pack. They were given a choice: accept transfers, or return to what they could only assume would be an icy reception from their old boss.

“We definitely are treated like we did something wrong,” Walker said.

Walker took the transfer. She is doing routine audits of milk producers, using none of the investigative skills she honed on the Christian Salvesen case.

Raborn is mulling it over. But the signals seem clear. When the FBI invited Raborn to its academy in Quantico, Va., for an all-expense-paid training course on computer crime, A.J. Yates, deputy director of the Agriculture Department, denied the travel request, saying in a July 23 memo that the course “is not essential to the performance of your work responsibilities.” Raborn went anyway, taking the time as vacation.

Why the reaction? The answer may lie in what they helped turn up. According to court files, their bosses were cozy with the very target of their investigation.

Established 60 years ago, the Bureau of Market Enforcement mediates money disputes between farmers and the brokers who sell their crops, making sure farmers get fair payment without litigation. The bureau’s policy is to leave fraud cases to other agencies.

Leaving fraud investigations to others is one thing. Helping targets of investigations is another. George Reese, the unit’s director, came under harsh criticism for seemingly doing just that.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger of Fresno chastised Reese this summer for apparently telling Christian Salvesen representatives early in the investigation that he would give them inside information. Wanger characterized the state system as one that seems to benefit “people who have the ability to buy influence and to use influence.”

The case began in 1988 when farmers, who contracted with Christian Salvesen to package and market their fruit, learned that the firm was underpaying them. Suits and investigations ensued.

Enter the Bureau of Market Enforcement. Like many state agencies, Market Enforcement has an advisory board, appointed by the department director. One advisory board member was Sam Hinkle, a lawyer from McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enerson. The San Francisco law firm counts Christian Salvesen as a client.

In December, 1988, when the case began, Hinkle phoned Reese and told him about “accounting irregularities” at Christian Salvesen. Reese, at Hinkle’s request, spoke to a Christian Salvesen executive, court documents say. Notes taken by the executive say Reese agreed to handle the matter “on the Q.T.” Reese also dispatched his top lieutenant to Sanger to meet with the firm in January, 1989.

The next month, FBI Agent Charles Regini confronted Reese. Reese explained that “this type of case was common in the packing industry and that it was unlikely to receive a higher priority than other pending cases,” Regini said in a statement.

By May, 1989, as Regini pressed on, Reese reconsidered, and assigned Raborn and Walker to help the FBI agent. They remained on the case for two years, living in Fresno hotels during the week, commuting to their homes in Sacramento on weekends.

Today, Raborn is vacationing at Quantico. Walker is auditing milk producers and misses using her investigative skills. She fears that the department’s treatment of her and her partner tells the industry that, in the future, they might get away with fraud.

But she is glad she got one opportunity to rise above the pack: “It let me know that I could hang in there with the best of them.”