Long Island Man Pleads Guilty In Mislabeled Meat Scheme

WESTBURY, NY — A Long Island man and his associate pleaded guilty today to charges related to their years-long scheme to sell mislabeled beef as higher quality meat. They are now facing years in jail and hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties.

Howard Mora, 68, of Westbury, and Alan Buxbaum, 66, of Monroe, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud as part of the scheme to use counterfeit USDA stamps to misbrand "choice" beef as higher-quality "prime" beef, which they would then sell at higher prices. The two were arrested nearly a year ago to the day.

“Mora and Buxbaum rang up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent profits by charging customers more than the defendants’ products were worth, and now they will pay a price for their avarice,” stated Acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme.

The two are now each facing up to 20 years in prison and criminal forfeiture of $250,000.

From September 2011 to October 2014, Mora and Buxbaum were the co-owners of A. Stein Meat Prodcuts, Inc., which was a wholesale meat processing and distribution business in Brooklyn. Prosecutors say that the two purposefully purchased beef that was labeled "choice" by USDA graders, and then had their employees carve off the "choice" markings and re-stamp them "prime" with counterfeit stamps.

Prosecutors say the meat was then sold around the New York metropolitan area at much higher prices than it was actually worth.