Some buyers for Kraft Foods and Frito-Lay are pleading guilty to accepting bribes.
Prosecutors in Sacramento today announced the scheme to drive up food prices.
Robert Watson of White Plains, N.Y., entered his plea to accepting $158,000 from a California-based tomato processor. Watson was a Kraft senior purchasing manager.
James Wahl Jr., a now-former Frito-Lay purchaser from Dallas, agreed to plead guilty to accepting about $160,000.
Each helped sales broker Randall Lee Rahal of SK Foods charge their companies inflated prices.
Rahal, of Ramsey, N.J., pleaded guilty Dec. 16 to racketeering, price fixing, bid rigging and contract conspiracies. SK Foods has denied wrongdoing.
Kraft and Frito-Lay say prosecutors told them Watson and Wahl are their only employees suspected in the scheme. The companies are not targets of the investigation.
