Omaha food processing company pays $750,000 for USDA violations

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - A sentence was handed down Friday that included a fine and a settlement for Nebraska Beef Ltd., an Omaha-based food processing company, for falsifying information about its grading records.

In addition to a year of probation, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert F. Rossiter Jr. ordered Nebraska Beef to pay a $200,000 fine. The company also paid a $550,000 fine in an agreement over a civil suit with the government over its conduct.

The sentence results from a June 2016 subpoena from the Nebraska grand jury when Nebraska Beef was “ordered to produce grading records for 30 carcasses of beef,” and the company’s corporate officer provided altered documents in printed form.

Two employees were sentenced earlier this year on related charges.

During an investigation by the USDA’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI, former Nebraska Beef employee Dolese Tippery, 61, of Council Bluffs, testified on May 6, 2022, that the grading records had been altered, “which was untrue.” Tippery was sentenced to six months probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Another Nebraska Beef employee, 50-year-old James Timmerman of Omaha, was sentenced earlier this year on related federal charges. On Sept. 9, he was sentenced to two years probation and fined $1,000 for false representation relating to agricultural grading records.