The Schaffer Indictments

Archie Schaffer, the director of media, public and governmental affairs at Tyson Foods Inc., was indicted Jan. 15 by a federal grand jury on the following counts:

• One count of mail fraud for sending a letter from the Arkansas Poultry Federation in Springdale to the Agriculture Department in Washington to invite Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy to a May 15, 1993, meeting of the federation in Russellville that coincided with a birthday party there hosted by Don Tyson “for his companion and John Tyson,” Don Tyson’s son.

• Two counts of wire fraud for using a facsimile machine to send invitations and travel plans to Espy for the Russellville event.

• Two counts of giving gratuities to Espy (travel and lodging for the Russellville meeting, valued at $2,556, and four tickets to President Clinton’s inaugural dinner, valued at $6,000). The inauguration took place Jan. 18, 1993, between the time Espy, then a congressman from Mississippi, was nominated (on Christmas Eve 1992) and the time he was confirmed and sworn in as Agriculture Secretary (Jan. 22, 1993).

• One count of providing illegal gratuities in violation of the 1907 Meat Inspection Act (pertaining to the federation meeting).

• One count of conspiracy for allegedly providing gratuities to Espy and another Agriculture Department official in an effort to influence them, and for attempting to cover up their actions.

Tyson Foods negotiated a guilty plea to violating the federal gratuities statute and agreed Jan. 12 pay a $4 million fine and $2 million toward the cost of Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz’s three-year investigation. A four-year probation also has been imposed on the company.

Espy was head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates meat and poultry processing companies. He resigned Dec. 31, 1994, while under investigation.

Espy pleaded innocent in September to charges he accepted nearly $35,000 in gifts from companies that the Agriculture Department regulates, including Tyson Foods.

On Dec. 15, Judge Ricardo Urbina threw out three counts against Espy. Thirty-six others remain. He is scheduled for trial beginning March 30.

In addition to William Jeffress of Washington, Schaffer is being represented by Fayetteville lawyer Woody Bassett, Schaffer’s brother-in-law. n