BIRMINGHAM, AL - John Stephen Alexander, the former CFO of the now defunct Birmingham, Alabama-based Adams Produce Company LLC, has plead guilty to withholding information about a scheme to defraud the federal government of $481,000 on a fruit and vegetable contract.
As we previously reported, Alexander and five other men were charged in relation to the fraud scheme at Adams Produce. They were charged in a scheme to create false records that showed a higher cost for fruits and vegetables than was actually paid. It was alleged that enlarged costs were then presented to the U.S. Federal Government, which had agreed to pay a certain amount over cost.
Alexander, who was CFO of Adams Produce from 2007 until the company’s closure in April 2012, pleaded guilty during a hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Virginia Hopkins, according to AL.com.
Back in May, Alexander was charged in an indictment with one count of conspiracy and 32 counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud, but in a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to one count of misprison - withholding information on a crime.
“The plea agreement and today’s guilty plea evidence Mr. Alexander’s acceptance of his responsibility in the sequence of events at Adams Produce Company,” Alexander’s attorney, Augusta Dowd, said. “Mr. Alexander has been fully cooperative with the government’s investigation into the wrongdoing at Adams Produce.”
AL.com reports that in exchange for his plea and cooperation with prosecutors, the U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped the charges in the indictment.
The five other former Adams officials have also plead guilty to charges and sentenced to prison or probation. Four of the men were ordered to pay $481,000 in restitution to the government, and Alexander will also be jointly responsible for paying the restitution as a condition of his plea.
Adams Produce was a produce company that was more than 100 years old. In the wake of the scandal, the company filed for re-organization under Chapter 11 in federal bankruptcy court in April 2013, and ceased operations.
