Ex-NYC school food chief gets 2 years for tainted chicken tender bribery

NEW YORK - Former head of food services for NYC schools, Eric Goldstein, has been sentenced to two years in prison for a bribery scandal that led to children being served chicken tenders contaminated with metal and bone.

Goldstein oversaw school food as head of New York City’s Office of School Support Services from 2008 to 2018.

Goldstein and three others who worked with the city to provide food were sentenced in Brooklyn federal court on Monday.

Blaine Iler, Michael Turley, and Brian Twomey were also sentenced. Iler received one year and a $10,000 fine, Turley was sentenced to 15 months, and Twomey received 15 months and a $10,000 fine.

Iler, Twomey, and Turley ran SOMMA Food Group, a company that contracted with the city to provide school food.

All four men were found guilty of bribery, conspiracy, and other charges after a trial in 2023.

Parents and students flock to PS 151-Yorkville Community School on the first day of school Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 in Manhattan, New York. (Photo by Barry Williams for NY Daily News via Getty Images)

At the time Goldstein was in office, the three men formed another company to import grass-fed beef. Prosecutors argue that this venture was a way to pay Goldstein off.

Peace said Goldstein "prioritized lining his pockets with payoffs from his co-defendants" to ensure that their food remained in schools even after plastic, bones, and metal were found in the chicken.

Prosecutors noted that the largest bribe payment was made in the fall of 2016, after the city school system had stopped serving SOMMA’s chicken tenders due to an incident where an employee choked on a bone in a supposedly boneless chicken tender.

SOMMA’s products were served in schools until April 2017 despite repeated complaints about foreign objects in the chicken tenders, prosecutors said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.