POULTRY GIANT'S FINES: COST OF BUSINESS

Last week, in a long-awaited settlement with the federal government, Arkansas-based poultry giant Tyson Foods agreed to pay $6 million in penalties after pleading guilty to making illegal gifts to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, including tickets to President Clinton's first inaugural dinner. Tyson admitted to making more than $12,000 in gifts to Espy during 1993, the first year of the Clinton administration, when it gave the newly appointed cabinet member four tickets, worth $6,000, to the inaugural dinner. The other gifts were travel, lodging and entertainment for Espy and his girlfriend, including playoff tickets to National Football League games. At the time, Espy's department was considering several regulations of interest to Tyson, including an emergency rule requiring safe handling instructions on all raw meat and chicken packages.

Espy has been indicted as a result of the investigation, which forced him to resign three years ago. He has denied wrongdoing. Another, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, was being investigated at the time of his death, while still another, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, is being investigated currently.

Gifts from Tyson prompted an internal Agriculture Department probe and the subsequent investigation by independent counsel Donald Smaltz. The investigations led to the trial and conviction of Sun-Diamond Growers of California, another agribusiness giant, and a guilty plea and fine for Crop Growers Corp., a leading crop insurance firm.

Notably, the plea agreement Tyson reached with Smaltz provides that Tyson won't be barred from making millions of dollars worth of sales to the military or school lunch programs. In other words, the fines Tyson paid are just another cost of doing business, and a rather piddling one at that. It is effectively just a slap on the wrist for the multibillion-dollar poultry giant that has played such a large role in the careers of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Not a very pretty sight.