Landmark, DiCarlo and their top execs sentenced in bid-rig case

Three executives and two broadliners were sentenced to pay a total of $4.23 million in restitution by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for their roles in rigging bids on more than $200 million worth of food contracts awarded by the New York City Board of Education (NYCBOE). The executives were also sentenced to serve jail time.

Gordon Kerner, president and co-owner of Landmark Food Corp., Holtsville, NY, was sentenced by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to 14 months in prison, and Kerner and Landmark together must pay a total of $1.5 million in restitution to the NYCBOE. Kerner also was ordered to pay a $74,000 fine.

Vincent DiCarlo, president and co-owner, DiCarlo Distributors, Inc., Holtsville, NY, was sentenced by Judge Rakoff to 5-1/2 months in prison and 5-1/2 months of home confinement. John DiCarlo, Sr, vice president and co-owner of DiCarlo Distributors, was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement. In addition, the two DiCarlo executives were ordered to pay fines of $130,000 each and jointly to pay $530,000 in restitution to the NYCBOE. The company itself was sentenced to pay an additional $2.2 million in restitution to the NYCBOE.

All told, some 22 individuals and 13 companies were charged in the case on May 31 and June 1, 2000, by the New York field office of the DOJ's Antitrust Div. All have agreed to plead guilty except David Salomon and his company, M&F Meat Products Co., East Orange, NJ. The latter were convicted in June after a three-week trial.

The government is seeking to have all defendants pay more than $20 million in restitution altogether, the amount the NYCBOE was overcharged.

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