Federal Jury Convicts Founder of Midamar Corporation

Following our previous post regarding Midamar Corporation allegedly selling mislabeled halal meat, a federal jury on July 13, 2015 convicted Bill Aossey Jr., the founder of Midamar, of 15 of the 19 charges that had been brought by prosecutors. Mr. Aossey was acquitted on the four counts of money laundering, but found guilty on charges of conspiracy, making false statements on export certificates and wire fraud. Prosecutors argued at trial that Mr. Aossey directed Midamar employees to remove the slaughterhouse-of-origin numbers from the packaging of meat received from a plant that had not been approved for export into Indonesia and Malaysia and replace them with numbers from an approved plant prior to export. Mr. Aossey's sentencing date has not yet been set. Prosecutors have also indicted Midamar Corporation and Mr. Aossey's sons, Jalal and Yahya Aossey, for similar violations. No trial date has been set for these defendants.