MADISON - A Monroe man who re-sold moldy Mexican cheese in 2007 and lied about it to the Food and Drug Administration was sentenced last month in federal court in Chicago to one year probation and fined $750,000.
The indictment issued in early 2012 alleged that:
In April 2007, Miguel Leal, who formerly headed Mexican Cheese Producers Inc., of Darlington, received at the firm's Elmhurst, Ill. warehouse more than 100,000 pounds of cheese imported from Mexico.
An FDA inspector ultimately ordered the cheese be destroyed after it tested positive for salmonella, E. coli, alkaline phosphatase, and staphylococcus, which, when consumed, can cause food poisoning and other illnesses.
Instead, some of the cheese was shipped to retailers who returned it because it was moldy.
The mold was scrapped or washed off the 35-pound cheese wheels and resold.
During June and July 2007, FDA inspectors questioned Leal and his co-conspirators about what happened to the cheese that should have been held. Leal showed FDA inspectors 311 unlabeled cartons of cheese at his Darlington cheese plant and told them it was the moldy cheese that was ordered detained.
Instead, the 311 boxes were "phony, stand-in cheese" and the moldy cheese already had been scrapped and shipped.
To further cover the sale of the tainted cheese, false bills of lading were produced and shown to the FDA.
The FDA, which issued a recall of the cheese in September 2007, received no reports of illnesses linked to the moldy cheese.
There was no evidence Leal ordered the cheese scam but he pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to distribute tainted food and lying to inspectors to cover it up.
District Judge James Zagel, who also ordered Leal to serve five days in jail as a condition of probation, said Leal's conduct started as a mistake but became a crime, according to published accounts of the sentencing.
Federal prosecutors sought a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison and 10 years' probation, arguing that it was comparable to sentences imposed for similar conduct.
Leal's attorney, Daniel Polatsek, sought probation only for his client, who he said was an immigrant who led a classic "rags-to-riches" life.
"He went from sleeping in the boiler room of a cheese factory, homeless and without enough money for food, to building his own cheese company that employed hundreds and was valued at $50 million," Polatsek wrote the court.
At the time of his crime, Leal's marriage was dissolving and he was in the midst of selling his business that was producing 125,000 pounds of cheese daily, his attorney wrote.
"The decisions were made without malice, without full information, and clearly without proper reflection. And the conduct is nothing like Mr. Leal had ever done before or would ever do again," Polatsek wrote.
Leal, an accomplished marksman, who competed with the U.S. national sporting clays team, has been banned from future participation because of his conviction.
Meanwhile, Leal has turned around his life and, with a longtime friend, has begun O'Hare Midway Electric Car Service, which would use Telsa electric cars to provide transportation to and from Chicago's two biggest airports.
Leal's co-conspirators, Cynthia Gutierrez, of Cicero, Ill., his bookkeeper and Guadalupe and Baldemar Zurita, who imported the cheese to Elmhurst, also were put on probation for their roles in the offense.
The indictment issued in early 2012 alleged that:
In April 2007, Miguel Leal, who formerly headed Mexican Cheese Producers Inc., of Darlington, received at the firm's Elmhurst, Ill. warehouse more than 100,000 pounds of cheese imported from Mexico.
An FDA inspector ultimately ordered the cheese be destroyed after it tested positive for salmonella, E. coli, alkaline phosphatase, and staphylococcus, which, when consumed, can cause food poisoning and other illnesses.
Instead, some of the cheese was shipped to retailers who returned it because it was moldy.
The mold was scrapped or washed off the 35-pound cheese wheels and resold.
During June and July 2007, FDA inspectors questioned Leal and his co-conspirators about what happened to the cheese that should have been held. Leal showed FDA inspectors 311 unlabeled cartons of cheese at his Darlington cheese plant and told them it was the moldy cheese that was ordered detained.
Instead, the 311 boxes were "phony, stand-in cheese" and the moldy cheese already had been scrapped and shipped.
To further cover the sale of the tainted cheese, false bills of lading were produced and shown to the FDA.
The FDA, which issued a recall of the cheese in September 2007, received no reports of illnesses linked to the moldy cheese.
There was no evidence Leal ordered the cheese scam but he pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to distribute tainted food and lying to inspectors to cover it up.
District Judge James Zagel, who also ordered Leal to serve five days in jail as a condition of probation, said Leal's conduct started as a mistake but became a crime, according to published accounts of the sentencing.
Federal prosecutors sought a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison and 10 years' probation, arguing that it was comparable to sentences imposed for similar conduct.
Leal's attorney, Daniel Polatsek, sought probation only for his client, who he said was an immigrant who led a classic "rags-to-riches" life.
"He went from sleeping in the boiler room of a cheese factory, homeless and without enough money for food, to building his own cheese company that employed hundreds and was valued at $50 million," Polatsek wrote the court.
At the time of his crime, Leal's marriage was dissolving and he was in the midst of selling his business that was producing 125,000 pounds of cheese daily, his attorney wrote.
"The decisions were made without malice, without full information, and clearly without proper reflection. And the conduct is nothing like Mr. Leal had ever done before or would ever do again," Polatsek wrote.
Leal, an accomplished marksman, who competed with the U.S. national sporting clays team, has been banned from future participation because of his conviction.
Meanwhile, Leal has turned around his life and, with a longtime friend, has begun O'Hare Midway Electric Car Service, which would use Telsa electric cars to provide transportation to and from Chicago's two biggest airports.
Leal's co-conspirators, Cynthia Gutierrez, of Cicero, Ill., his bookkeeper and Guadalupe and Baldemar Zurita, who imported the cheese to Elmhurst, also were put on probation for their roles in the offense.