A Las Vegas food import company, two Chinese businesses and the companies' top executives were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in connection with their parts in a tainted-pet food scandal last year that sickened or killed thousands of dogs and cats, the Justice Department said.
The announcement by John F. Wood, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, marks the first time that a domestic company has faced criminal charges because melamine -- a chemical found in plastics that can cause kidney failure in animals -- was added to shipments of wheat gluten, a binding agent used in pet foods.
The pet food contamination crisis, which prompted the recall of more than 60 million containers of dog and cat food, was the first in a wave of product scares that alarmed the American public about the quality of goods made in China.
Melamine can artificially inflate the apparent protein content of food additives, allowing exporters to use cheaper ingredients, the indictment said.
"In today's global economy, crimes that occur halfway around the world can seriously impact our lives," Wood said. "Millions of pet owners remember the anxiety of last year's pet food recall. These indictments are the product of an investigation that began in the wake of that recall."
ChemNutra Inc., which imports Chinese food and ingredients for distribution across the United States, along with married owners Sally Qing Miller, 41, and Stephen S. Miller, 55, were charged in a 27-count indictment with evading mandatory inspections of the ingredients in China, delivering adulterated food, misbranding food and conspiring to defraud the companies that unknowingly bought the tainted ingredient. All but the conspiracy count are misdemeanors.
"ChemNutra and Steve and Sally Miller deny in the strongest of terms the allegations by the Department of Justice and look forward to the opportunity to prove their innocence at trial," the company said in a statement. "Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Miller had any intent to defraud or any knowledge of wrongdoing."
Wood said the felony count against ChemNutra and the Millers alleged that they knew the Chinese exporters had put an incorrect product code on the exports -- allowing the shipment to leave China without the normal inspections of food -- and didn't disclose that fact to their customers.
