The former CEO of Blue Bell Creameries will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping fraud charges against him in connection with a 2015 listeria outbreak traced back to the company’s contaminated ice cream.
Under an agreement filed in federal court in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, Paul Kruse, the company’s former president and CEO, agreed to plead guilty to causing adulterated ice cream products to be distributed and pay a $100,000 fine.
The agreement came nearly three years after the US Department of Justice first charged Kruse with felony fraud in connection with the deadly outbreak. His August trial ended in a hung jury, and a retrial was scheduled for April.
Kruse would serve no prison time under the agreement, which is subject to court approval, and the Justice Department agreed to dismiss five fraud charges against him.
“The settlement confirms what Mr. Kruse has been saying from the start: no one at Blue Bell ever intended to defraud its customers, and we are pleased that the government has reached the same conclusion,” his attorney, Chris Flood, said in a statement.
The Justice Department did not respond immediately.
In 2020, the Texas-based ice cream maker agreed to pay $19.35 million and plead guilty to charges of shipping contaminated products linked to the outbreak.
In 2015, the company recalled its ice cream after 10 reported cases of listeria in four states were linked to its products. Three people were killed.
Prosecutors accused Kruse of concealing what the company knew about product contamination.
He will now enter a misdemeanor plea under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which allows for liability regardless of intent or knowledge of the tainted products.