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Feb 12, 2009, 05:43AM

White-collar crime to shame even Madoff

The man accused of distributing peanuts that lead to an outbreak of salmonella that sickened thousands and killed eight refused to answer any of the first round of questions thrown his way.

Terrible:

Parnell, the CEO of Georgia's Peanut Corporation of America, sat stone faced, and took the Fifth in response to every angry question regarding the bacteria-tainted products he defiantly told employees to ship to some 50 manufacturers of cookies, crackers and ice cream.

"Turn them loose," Parnell had told his plant manager in an internal e-mail disclosed at the House hearing. The e-mail referred to products that once were deemed contaminated but were cleared in a second test last year.

Summoned by congressional subpoena, the owner of Peanut Corp. of America repeatedly invoked his right not to incriminate himself at the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the salmonella outbreak that has sickened some 600 people, may be linked to nine deaths - the latest reported in Ohio on Wednesday - and resulted in one of the largest product recalls of more than 1,900 items.

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