Endicott Wheat Firm Pleads Guilty

The Wheat Growers of Endicott Inc., a grain storage and marketing company, pleaded guilty Friday to making a false statement for financial gain about government grain held in storage.

The company was fined $4,800 by U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley who noted that the incident caused “no loss to the government.”

The court found that on July 18, 1992, the company, which was under contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to store a certain quantity of grain, reported that the grain was available when actually it had been sold.

As part of the plea, prosecutors dropped two other similar counts of alleged false statements in 1991 and 1992.

“What happened, happened,” John Schlomer, vice president of the company told the court. “We just want to get it behind us.”

In other matters, Whaley postponed a plea on similar charges against Odessa Union Warehouse because of a conflict of interest. Whaley said his wife worked for Winston & Cashatt, a law firm representing Odessa Union.

, DataTimes