Washington – Former FDA chief Lester Crawford has agreed to plead guilty to charges of failing to disclose a financial interest in PepsiCo Inc. and other companies regulated by his agency, his lawyer said Monday.
The Justice Department accused the former head of the Food and Drug Administration in court papers of falsely reporting that he had sold stock in companies when he continued holding shares in the firms governed by FDA rules.
Court papers say Crawford chaired the Food and Drug Administration’s Obesity Working Group while he and his wife owned shares worth at least $62,000 in soft-drink and snack-food manufacturer PepsiCo Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y. In addition, the documents say, he held stock worth at least $78,000 in food-product manufacturer Sys co Corp., based in Houston.
While he and his wife owned the stock, the panel Crawford chaired met with representatives from the packaged food industry and gave congressional testimony encouraging manufacturers to relabel serving sizes to give calorie counts greater prominence.
Crawford “is going to plead guilty to two misdemeanors tomorrow afternoon, and he is going to admit his financial disclosures had errors and omissions, mostly with his wife’s continued ownership of stocks,” said Crawford’s lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder. She said Crawford was not disputing the government’s claims in what she called a plea agreement.
Accused of making a false writing and conflict of interest, Crawford was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate this afternoon. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
The papers say Crawford failed to disclose his income from exercising stock options in Embrex Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., an agriculture biotechnology company that has been regulated by the FDA.
