A former New York City school food exec receives two-year sentence in a tainted chicken bribery case

An ex-New York City Department of Education (DOE) official was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday for taking bribes to serve young students chicken tenders contaminated with metal bits, plastic and bone.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office - Eastern District of New York, Eric Goldstein, the former head of food services for public schools in the city, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court. Alongside Goldstein, three men who founded a vendor to provide school foods — Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey — received sentencings Monday. Iler was sentenced to 12 months and a day with a $10,000 fine, Turley to 15 months and Twomey to 15 months and a $10,000 fine.

The four defendants were convicted by a federal jury in June 2023 after a monthlong trial. Goldstein, Iler, Turley and Twomey were found guilty on multiple counts of bribery and bribery conspiracy relating to programs receiving federal funds.

While serving as head of the school system’s Office of School Support Services from 2008 to 2018, Goldstein oversaw food service operations, including the food service program SchoolFood. Iler, Turley and Twomey owned a company, SOMMA Food Group, that focused on delivering food to New York City schools.

Between 2015 and 2016, Goldstein joined forces with Iler, Turley and Twomey to form and operate a grass-fed beef importation business called Range Meats Supply Co., LLC (RMSCO). The corrupt arrangement involved SOMMA providing funds to RMSCO on behalf of Goldstein, including payments to Goldstein’s divorce attorney and father. In exchange, Goldstein abused his executive power within SchoolFood to ensure that food products promoted and sold by SOMMA, namely its Chickentopia brand items, would be purchased by the city’s DOE and served to New York City public schools.

Prosecutors noted that over the course of 14 months, Iler, Turley and Twomey transferred approximately $96,670 to RMSCO. Those funds included a payment of $7,000 to Goldstein’s personal divorce lawyer and a $3,000 wire transfer to a close relative of Goldstein.

The largest bribe payment was made in the fall of 2016 after the city school system stopped serving SOMMA’s food products when an employee choked on a bone in a supposedly boneless Chickentopia chicken tender. SOMMA’s food products were back in school cafeterias just two months later. According to court documents, SOMMA’s return came a day after Iler, Turley and Twomey agreed to pay Goldstein $66,670 — a hefty amount that he had demanded. Goldstein then approved the reintroduction of Chickentopia products, which were served in schools until April 2017 despite complaints that the tenders contained foreign objects.

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“Eric Goldstein corruptly abused his high-ranking position of trust as a public official and pursued lucrative bribes at the expense of school children, many of whom rely on healthy meals provided by the New York City Department of Education,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.

He continued, “Great responsibility came with overseeing the school system’s food operations, but shamefully, Goldstein prioritized lining his pockets with payoffs from his co-defendants to ensure the DOE purchased their products and that their food stayed in the schools even after plastic, bones and metal were found in the chicken served to schoolchildren and teachers.”