TRIAL OF FORMER BLUE BELL PRESIDENT AGAIN DELAYED
The trial of former Blue Bell President Paul Kruse has again been delayed and is now set to begin jury selection August 1st of this year. Kruse is facing Federal felony charges of conspiracy and fraud since October 2020. The charges relate to the Listeria outbreak in 2015 that sicken 10 and killed 3 people. This past year, his defense attorneys asked to delay the trial to 2022 because of their obligations for other clients.
Blue Bell itself plead guilty in a related case in 2020 to two counts of distributing adulterated food products in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The company agreed to pay criminal penalties totaling $19.35 million. The total was the second-largest amount ever paid in the resolution of a food safety matter.
Paul Kruse is the only Blue Bell Executive facing Federal criminal charges as a result of the 2015 outbreak.
I think that paul is taking the “Heat” for all of this , But there are many more people that should be charged and go to trial. There is no way that ONLY Paul knew about this issue or he was the ONLY one involved in covering it up. A lot of “High UPs’ at Bluebell got a “Free Pass” and it is not fair. My Hopes are that Others will be Indited as well.
Completely agree! However, if you look at corporate fraud history, there is generally ONE fall guy. This was Blue Bell’s.
Reading the charges filed in court, the potential punishment seems excessive. From what I read in the pleadings the big crime was removing the contaminated batches from the shelves and not immediately notifying the public. He should have done things differently but far too many CEOs of large corporations have done far worse and got away scot-free. If you are well connected in Washington DC you are immune from your bad actions, but if you are a smaller fish that is not well connected in Washington DC and don’t pay millions of dollars to politicians in “lobbying” then they come down hard on you. It has become clear that there are two systems of justice in the country. One for the large multi-national companies, DC politicians, and their friends then another for the normal folk and businesses that don’t have hundreds of billions in sales. I used to think that it was equal justice for all in this country, but I have recently realized that the well-connected elites can do whatever they want and the Feds do nothing, but the rest of us beware.
BUT IN THIS CASE PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES BECAUSE OF THE COVER UP.
That’s been disputed actually.
The ones who died had underlying conditions, and it was reported they died with listeria but not confirmed that was the official cause of death.
Let’s tell the full story please – a LOT of disinformation about this incident harmed a lot of innocents too.
Very well said “Full story”, I couldn’t agree with you more.
Yes, the 3 people that died as I recall were very sick, to begin with, and it was not clearly determined whether listeria killed them. Additionally, That same year (according to the CDC) there were 17 deaths and 282 got sick with it. Only 13 from Blue Bell. Therefore, Bell Bell is attributed to a fraction of the death and illnesses of Listeria that year and yet Paul Kruse is the only one charged. Why? Because Blue Bell is not a multi-national corporation that is well connected.
Say you have someone with an underlying condition and they die after contracting a bacterial infection, maybe listeria wasn’t the ACTUAL cause of death but rather led to complications in said pre-existing condition – resulting in death. Still a dead person that probably wouldn’t have been otherwise. Remind you of anything?