FBI arrests SK Foods owner on fraud charges

His was the most-anticipated arrest in a far-reaching federal investigation of corruption in the food industry.

Salyer is charged in a criminal complaint and a 59-page supporting affidavit from an FBI agent – filed Jan. 5 and unsealed Thursday – with 20 counts of mail and wire fraud linked to a maze of alleged schemes carried out between 1998 and 2008. They purportedly were designed to bilk corporate customers through bribery, misbranding and the sale of products so full of mold that they were not legally salable in the United States.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said Salyer, a 54-year-old Pebble Beach resident, had planned to abscond in the wake of guilty pleas by several former SK Foods employees and customers.

Purchasing managers for a who's who of the nation's food companies have pleaded guilty to bribing an SK Foods sales broker to ensure that the companies purchased SK's products at elevated prices. At other times, bribes were paid to acquire SK competitors' proprietary bid information, according to plea agreements on file in federal court.

The broker, Randall Lee Rahal, 61, of Ramsey, N.J., pleaded guilty in December 2008 to bid rigging, racketeering and other charges. He said Salyer ordered the hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe payments.