Sams Club, Tyson Employees Charged With Taking Kickbacks

Separate federal criminal indictments were unsealed last month charging an employee of Sam’s Club and an employee of Tyson Foods Inc. with accepting kickbacks from vendors.

The vendors also were charged in the indictments, which were handed down by a grand jury in Fayetteville on Jan. 25 and unsealed when the defendants were arraigned Feb. 15. Not guilty pleas have been entered by all four men, Mark Hoffman and David Workman in the Sam’s Club case and Roger D. Turney and Bobby D. Griffith in the Tyson case.

Hoffman, a senior buyer of dry goods and coffee for the wholesale club division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., allegedly accepted almost $250,000 from a Florida coffee broker between 2003 and 2007.

Hoffman and Workman, who owned Mountain Falls Inc. of Cypress Gardens, Fla., are jointly charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of aiding and abetting mail fraud.

Griffith, majority owner of B&W Millwrights of Clarksville, allegedly paid Turney, engineer at the Tyson complex in Clarksville, a $25,000 kickback for falsifying bids on a 2007 construction job to ensure B&W got the contract.

Griffith and Turney were jointly charged with four counts of aiding and abetting mail fraud and a single count of money laundering.

In both cases, the corporate employees allegedly set up dummy companies to which the vendors paid kickbacks.

The Hoffman case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson of Fort Smith after U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren of Fayetteville recused himself, and a trial has been tentatively set to start April 5.

Hoffman is represented by Fayetteville attorney Terry Harper, and Workman is represented by Tim Buckley, also of Fayetteville.

Turney, who left Tyson in August 2010, has a company called Design Engineering, through which the prosecution says he ran kickbacks from companies awarded construction projects at the Tyson complex there.

Turney’s defense attorney, Joel Huggins of Springdale, said his client will argue his innocence at trial, currently set for May 14.

Griffith’s attorney, Kimberly R. Weber of Rogers, said her client also denies any wrongdoing. The case has been assigned to Judge Hendren.