Apple Packer Pleads Innocent In Scam

Apple packer Theodore Zacher of Wenatchee pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations that he and three others conspired to disguise New Zealand apples as Washington fruit and sell them in Taiwan.

The elderly, white-haired former president of Chief Wenatchee packing company was arraigned on a 50-count federal indictment in Spokane before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno.

Zacher was indicted last month by a federal grand jury. Chief Wenatchee, a grower-owned cooperative, was not indicted.

The indictment claims Zacher and others earned at least $3 million by organizing a scheme to put Washington apple box lids on New Zealand Gala apples. The operation bypassed a Taiwanese import quota on New Zealand apples and netted three times what the apples would have sold for in the United States, the indictment said. The disguised apples were sold between April 1991 and July 1992.