COLUMBIA (AP) -- Authorities say a 36-year-old Sumter man cheated a poultry plant out of more than $2 million by falsifying records about how he disposed of chicken parts.
Federal prosecutors said Dwayne Budden pleaded guilty Monday to mail fraud. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in March.
Investigators say Budden Company, LLC, had a deal with the Pilgrim's Pride plant to dispose of chicken parts and other waste at the Lee County landfill.
But for at least five years, authorities say Budden instead buried the waste on his family's land in Sumter County without a permit, then falsified receipts from the landfill.
Prosecutors say the plant paid Budden's company $2.4 million to dispose of the waste.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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