A milling company has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges that employees at a Wisconsin corn plant falsified records in the years leading up to a fatal corn dust explosion, according to the Associated Press.
The plea deal calls for Didion Milling Inc. to pay a $1 million fine and $10.25 million to the estates of the five workers who were killed in the blast at the company’s Cambria mill in May 2017. The company also has agreed to a five-year “organizational probation” and must allow federal inspectors to visit the mill without advance notice up to twice a year.
A federal grand jury indicted Didion last year on nine counts, including falsifying records, fraud, and conspiracy. According to court documents, Didion shift employees and supervisors knowingly falsified log books inspectors use to determine whether the plant was handling corn dust safely and complying with dust-cleaning rules from 2015 until May 2017.
Didion last month agreed to pay the Wisconsin Department of Justice $940,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging multiple regulatory violations at the Cambria plant.
Didion CEO Riley Didion said in a statement Thursday that the company was thankful to have reached the plea deal and was pleased most of the financial settlement will go to the workers’ estates, calling the explosion “heartbreaking.”
Three Didion officials — Derrick Clark, who was vice president of operations; Shawn Mesner, who was food safety superintendent; and James Lentz, who was environmental manager — are scheduled to stand trial Monday in federal court in Madison on charges that include conspiracy, fraud, and falsifying records.
