ST. LOUIS • A former employee of a Texas-based company on Thursday admitted helping orchestrate a scheme where lower-quality pet food ingredients containing poultry feathers, heads, bones, feet or entrails were passed off to pet food manufacturers, distributors and brokers as higher-quality, more expensive ingredients.
Henry R. Rychlik pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two misdemeanor charges of adulteration or misbranding of food, and admitted a role in sending multiple adulterated shipments from 2012 to May 2014, his plea agreement says. Rychlik admitted altering paperwork to cover up the substitution.
The plea specifically mentions two shipments in 2014 that totaled 98,000 pounds.
His plea says he did not personally profit from the scheme, although others made millions of dollars.
Rychlik could face no more than a year in jail for the misdemeanor charges, and could also face a $2,000 fine.
Rychlik lawyer Chris Slusher said the 66-year-old has never been in trouble before and “regrets his role.”
A Ballwin company, Diversified Ingredients, pleaded guilty in July to two misdemeanor adulteration counts and agreed to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution.
Diversified Ingredients co-owner Collin McAtee pleaded guilty May 17 to two counts of the same offense and admitted helping ship adulterated food from Texas to pet food companies and others.
He could face up to a year in prison, but his lawyer will ask for probation.
Gregory S. McKinney, a former Texas state employee who once investigated mislabeled food, pleaded guilty in May to a felony adulteration charge and admitted supplying falsely labeled ingredients for pet food products.
Wilbur-Ellis Feed LLC, a California company, pleaded guilty April 25 to one misdemeanor adulteration charge and is likely to be placed on probation and ordered to pay out nearly $5.5 million.
A lawyer said the company made “mistakes handling documents” but was unaware of adulterated product.
Another Texas man, William Douglas Haning, has pleaded not guilty and vowed, through his lawyer, to fight the charges.
Haning was co-owner of American By-Products of Rosser, Texas, which employed Rychlik. The company was sold to Wilbur-Ellis, a California company, in 2011.
