Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Vermont
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015
The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that Yves Bolduc, President of the Quebec cattle feed brokerage and manufacturing company, Meunerie Sawyerville, Inc., appeared Monday in United States District Court in Rutland on behalf of the Canadian corporation. United States District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford sentenced the defendant corporation to one year of probation and two fines of $70,000 and $10,000 on the two felony counts of conviction. The corporation had previously pled guilty to one count of making a false statement to the United States government, and one count of fraudulently causing the cattle feed drug monensin to be introduced into interstate commerce at a level of concentration significantly higher than that allowed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to court documents, on or about Sept. 12, 2012, Meunerie Sawyerville sent a driver into the United States with a truckload of cattle feed medicated with the regulated drug monensin at a concentration above that allowed by the FDA and 200% more than what was marked on the label. The feed was sampled at the border, and the driver was ordered to warehouse the feed pending further testing from the FDA. Contrary to orders from U.S. officials, Bolduc instructed the driver to deliver the feed to the Vermont farmer as planned, without informing the farmer that the feed had been sampled and ordered held by the FDA. The driver did deliver the medicated feed to the customer, and the Vermont cows consumed the contaminated feed. Bolduc thereafter engineered a plan that a sham shipment of similar-looking cattle feed cross the border under false Customs documentation to be stored on an unrelated piece of land in Vermont until requested for redelivery by Customs and Border Protection. Upon Customs’ request, Bolduc ordered that the sham shipment be presented for redelivery, accompanied by fictitious documentation that represented the sham shipment of feed to be the tainted feed, which was in fact already consumed by Vermont cows. United States Attorney Eric Miller emphasized the importance of enforcing the FDA’s rules on medicated feed, stating, “Vermonters care deeply about the quality and content of the milk our farmers produce and our families drink. My office will continue to work closely with the FDA to make sure that feed suppliers comply with laws that protect consumers from tainted products." Meunerie Sawyerville was represented by Attorney Bud Allen. The prosecutor was Assistant U.S. Attorney Abigail Averbach. The United States Attorney would like to express his gratitude to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations, Veterinary Drug Specialists, and Office of the Chief Counsel, for their excellent investigative work and assistance with this case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
