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PA A MAJOR MEAT PACKING CO. INDICTED FOR ENVIRON. CRIMES

Release Date: 2/26/96
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PA A MAJOR MEAT PACKING CO. INDICTED FOR ENVIRON. CRIMES

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1996

CORPORATE OFFICIALS OF A MAJOR MEAT PACKING CO. INDICTED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

A former Senior Vice President of John Morrell and Co. and the current Plant Engineer of the company's Sioux Falls, S.D., slaughterhouse were indicted on Feb. 26 by a federal grand jury in Sioux Falls, S.D., for violating the Clean Water Act. Timothy J. Sinskey, former Senior Vice President of John Morrell and Co. and until November 1992 the head of Morrell's Sioux Falls Division, was charged with 30 counts of violating the Clean Water Act. Wayne Kumm, plant engineer of the Sioux Falls Division since 1990, has been charged with 17 counts. The indictment of Sinskey and Kumm follows the Morrel company's guilty pleas on Feb. 7, to six counts of dumping slaughterhouse waste into the Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls. If the plea agreement is approved by the court, the Morrell Co. will pay a $2 million criminal fine and pay another $1 million to establish a local environmental cleanup fund. Sentencing of the corporation is set for May 13. The felony indictment charges Sinskey and Kumm with a conspiracy that involved nearly eight years of illegal dumping of slaughterhouse waste into the Big Sioux River. In addition, Sinskey has been charged with deliberately falsifying monthly discharge monitoring reports (DMRs) submitted to EPA to coverup the pollution. According to the indictment, company documents detailing the pollution were to be destroyed after being read. Two other corporate officials, Ronald Greenwood and Barry M. Milbauer, the former manager and assistant manager of Morrell's wastewater treatment plant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act in January 1995. The prosecution was initiated after a voluntary disclosure to the government by Chiquita Brands International, which was the parent corporation of the Morrell Co. until December 1995, when the company, one of the largest employers in South Dakota, was sold to Smithfield Foods Inc. of Virginia. This prosecution resulted from an investigation pursued by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division.

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