Penn Traffic executives sent to prison for falsifying financial reports

Penn Traffic ran P&C supermarkets in New York, New England and Pennsylvania. The company went bankrupt late last year.

This item came across the Associated Press wire Friday night:

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) _ Two former Penn Traffic supermarket chain executives were sentenced to 14 months in federal prison for falsely inflating the company’s profits in financial reports, gaining thousands of dollars in bonuses for themselves.

U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd on Friday sentenced 50-year-old Linda Jones, former vice president of nonperishable merchandising, and 63-year-old Leslie Knox, former senior vice president and chief marketing director. They also were also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines.

Jones and Knox pleaded guilty last August to filing false earnings reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They were fired in 2006.
Buffalo-based Tops paid more than $85 million for most of bankrupt Penn Traffic’s assets, including its 79 supermarkets, in January.