020517 Guilty Plea in $3.3M Meat Repackaging Scheme

Boston, MA - A Roslindale, MA man was convicted in federal court of one count of conspiracy and two counts of filing false tax returns in connection with a meat repackaging scheme that resulted in the sale of more than $3.3 million in misbranded meat over the course of approximately four years.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Michael Lahey, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced today that JOSE YURITTA, age 51, of Roslindale, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner to conspiracy and tax fraud.

At the plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial the Government's evidence would have proven that during a period commencing prior to October 1994 and continuing to April 1998, YURITTA participated in a conspiracy to misbrand quantities of meat product as a more expensive product, resulting in sale at a higher price per pound. YURITTA was paid "under the table" for his labor in connection with this misbranding scheme, and thus knowingly under-reported his wages to the Internal Revenue Service for tax years 1996 and 1997 by several thousand dollars.

The prosecutor told the Court that YURITTA and his co-conspirators caused tractor truckload quantities of partially defatted fatty beef tissue to be purchased and delivered to a warehouse location at the premises of Woolf International, 13A Alexander Road in Billerica, Massachusetts. There, the conspirators repackaged the fatty beef tissue into counterfeit packaging that indicated the product was actually partially defatted chopped beef. The counterfeit packaging also included false USDA marks, indicating that the USDA had inspected and passed the product when in fact it had not. The truckloads were then sold to Woolf International customers that had ordered, and paid for, partially defatted chopped beef. The repackaging operation was conducted in secrecy in a warehouse room that was not refrigerated and was partially under construction and dirty. YURITTA and his co-conspirators did not observe or enforce any sanitary precautions while performing the illegal repackaging. During the period of approximately October 1994 to April 1998, YURITTA and his co-conspirators sold falsely relabelled product as partially defatted chopped beef in an amount exceeding $3.3 million.

YURITTA was indicted in January of this year along with six others: Laurence B. Greenburg, age 65, of Jupiter, Florida; Howard J. Woolf, age 40, of Newton, Massachusetts; Russell B. Skidds, age 49, of Malden, Massachusetts; Wayne Ciaramitaro, age 42, of Gloucester, Massachusetts; Joseph J. Screnci, age 37, of Las Vegas, Nevada; and James D. Taylor, age 38, of Gloucester, Massachusetts. The charges against these six defendants are still pending.

Judge Gertner scheduled sentencing for July 29, 2002. YURITTA faces up to 5 years' imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori J. Holik in Sullivan's Economic Crimes Unit.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com