Importers Plead Guilty in Tainted Pet Food Case

The owners of a Las Vegas-based import business face possible jail time and federal penalties for distributing tainted pet food ingredients from China.

Sally Qing Miller and her husband Stephen S. Miller, the president and CEO, respectively, of ChemNutra, pleaded guilty in federal court June 16 to two misdemeanors related to shipping melamine-laced wheat gluten to U.S. pet food manufacturers.

Pet food made with the tainted gluten either killed or sickened thousands of cats and dogs throughout the U.S. in 2007, the Food and Drug Administration said. The case spurred efforts to tighten food product safety regulations and a $24 million class action settlement against pet food manufacturers, along with at least $8 million in additional claims.

The class action lawsuit targeted Menu Foods and several other companies, including the Chinese exporters who shipped the melamine-tainted wheat gluten to ChemNutra. The Chinese exporters were indicted in a separate case.

The Millers imported more than 800 metric tons of tainted wheat gluten from China in at least 13 separate shipments, with invoices totaling nearly $850,000, between Nov. 6, 2006, and Feb. 21, 2007, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, Mo., which prosecuted the case after an investigation by the FDA and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Kansas City was the port of entry for the shipments, which were shipped to customers across the U.S., including Menu Foods.

The original indictment charged the Millers with conspiring with their Chinese suppliers, who allegedly added melamine to the wheat gluten to falsely boost its protein value. The Millers pleaded guilty to only two of the original 27 counts, but agreed to allow the court to consider the conduct they were charged with in the other counts as “relevant” in sentencing.

The couple could face two years in prison and a maximum fine of $200,000, though they may be sentenced to probation and pay a much lower penalty.

Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.