030207 Feds Say Tyson Paid for Smuggled Workers

Chattanooga, TN - Tyson Foods managers paid for smuggled illegal immigrant workers with checks printed with the address of the food giant's corporate headquarters, a government agent testified.

The testimony spoke to federal prosecutors' central allegation in their conspiracy case against Tyson -- that top-level executives knew about and condoned the hiring of illegal workers. Outside court, a company spokesman said the checks do not bolster the government's case.

U.S. Border Patrol agent Benito Maldonado described how he and other undercover agents posing as immigrant smugglers were paid by Tyson.

Two 1999 checks -- one for $800 and one for $600 -- were payments to agents who smuggled 16 illegal workers to Tyson plants in Monroe, N.C., and Corydon, Ind., Maldonado testified. Both checks and an envelope one was delivered in were printed with the address of Tyson's Springdale, Ark., headquarters.

Tyson spokesman Gary Michelson said outside court that the checks do not show that top executives knew about the illegal hirings. The company's attorneys contend that the only people involved were rogue managers who have since been fired.

Michelson said all bills submitted by local plants are paid through a centralized account.

"The only thing the checks highlighted in court show is that this involved the same handful of people who were fired by the company for violating hiring policy," Michelson said. He added that other evidence will show that those involved "went to great lengths to make sure no one at corporate headquarters knew what was going on."

Tyson and three current and former officials are being tried on charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work on the production lines of the nation's largest poultry processor.

If convicted, Tyson could face millions in fines and the loss of government contracts.

The government claims that undercover agents delivered 136 illegal immigrants to Tyson plants in six states, part of what chief prosecutor John MacCoon describes as a nationwide conspiracy that began in 1994 after company managers had trouble hiring cheap legal labor.

Jurors have heard a taped conversation in which a man identified as a Tyson manager told Maldonado he needed hundreds of illegal workers, and another in which a manager told the agent how to bypass a government screening program some plants were using to identify illegal immigrants.

Tyson fired three managers, including one of the defendants, Gerald Lankford, 63, of North Wilkesboro, N.C. The other fired managers pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors and are expected to testify.

The other defendants, Robert Hash, 49, of Greenwood, Ark., and Keith Snyder, 42, of Bella Vista, Ark., are on administrative leave from Tyson.

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