BIRMINGHAM, AL – Steven Finberg, the former Chief Operating Officer at Adams Produce, has been sentenced to six months in prison for his role in withholding information about a scheme to defraud the federal government.
Finberg, who pled guilty last May, will serve his sentence at a Federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house starting January 4. He will also be responsible for jointly paying restitution of $481,000 to the government, along with the six other Adams executives that have previously pled guilty in the scheme, according to an AL.com news report.
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the great company that was Adams Produce,” Finberg apologetically told his family, friends, and former co-workers.
He asked the judge to be placed on probation so he could take care of his family at home, AL.com reports.
Finberg served as the COO of Adams Produce from 2007 to 2012. In the early fall of 2011, he became aware of a scheme to defraud the federal government by creating false records that showed a higher cost for fruits and vegetables than was actually paid, and failed to report the wrongdoing.
Other Adams Produce executives that have been found guilty include:
- David Scott Grinstead, former Adams CEO
- John Stephen Alexander, former Adams CFO
- David Andrew Kirkland, former Adams Director of Purchasing
- Michael John O’Brien, former General Manager for the Adams Produce Distribution Center in Pensacola, FL
- Christopher Alan Pfahl, former Adams Produce official
- Stanley Joel Butler, former Purchasing Agent for Adams
In the wake of the scandal, Adams Produce filed for re-organization under Chapter 11 in federal bankruptcy court in April 2013, and subsequently ceased operations.
Finberg’s attorney, John Lentine, alleged that the company did not go bankrupt because of the scheme.
Before it had shut down, Adams Produce was more than a century old and was one of Birmingham’s oldest and largest companies.
