FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD PLEADS GUILTY TO FRAUD

Lester Crawford, the former FDA commissioner who abruptly left the agency two months after being confirmed, pleaded guilty to failing to disclose financial conflicts and making false statements, but is unlikely to spend more than a few months in prison, his attorney says.

The sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 22, Crawford's attorney, Barbara Van Gelder of Wiley Rein & Fielding, said. While the judge will determine the sentence, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has agreed to no more than six months in prison and will not object to the lower end of the range, she added.

The U.S. attorney's case claimed that Crawford had a conflict of interest through his ownership of stock in several companies that the agency regulates -- including Embrex, Sysco, Kimberly-Clark and PepsiCo -- while he was an FDA employee. Crawford also lied to HHS ethics officials and the Senate, telling them that he had sold his interest in these companies, the DOJ alleged. Crawford "knowingly made and delivered as true writings containing statements that [he] knew to be materially false," the DOJ said.