<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Birmingham, AL-</span><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By ANUK Staff<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">2.7.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged Adams Produce Company’s Director of Purchasing David Andrew Kirkland with conspiracy to defraud the federal government of several hundred thousand dollars with a scheme to create false invoices and purchases orders.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Kirkland is the third Adams Produce Company official charged in connection with fraud at the bankrupt Birmingham distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/adamsproducebody.jpg" alt="Adams Produce" /><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"This defendant was an officer of Adams Produce Company who joined other employees in a fraud meant to cover the company's deteriorating financial condition," Vance said. "The fraud included cheating the government on contracts involving military bases and schools. The investigation of wrongdoing by former Adams officers and employees continues, and any who have committed crimes will be held accountable," she said.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Kirkland, is charged in the same purchasing fraud scheme as Christopher Alan Pfahl, a purchasing program specialist for Adams Produce. Kirkland was Pfahl's supervisor. Pfahl, 41, of Birmingham, was charged in December and pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to defraud the government of $481,000 on produce contracts.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">According to the charges and pleadings in the three cases, Pfahl, Kirkland and other employees of Adams Produce engaged in a scheme to create false records that reflected a higher purchasing cost for fruits and vegetables from a national distributor than Adams Produce actually paid. The inflated costs were then presented to the U.S. Government, which had agreed to pay a certain amount over Adams' cost for produce.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service investigated the cases, which Assistant U.S. Attorney George A. Martin Jr. is prosecuting.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.justice.gov/" target="_new">Department of Justice</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
