Opinion ID: 177996
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ConAgra's export operations/Bahrani's employment with ConAgra

Text: Defendants are engaged in the business of exporting meat and animal products, including beef hides. Bahrani began working for ConAgra in 1996 as a documentation coordinator/international negotiator at ConAgra's Greeley, Colorado office. Aplt.App. at 410-11. In that role, Bahrani worked with all documents pertaining to the exports of raw hides, bills of lading, export certificates, insurance forms, slaughter date certificates, [and] weight sheets. Id. at 411. Most of Bahrani's work involved shipments of hides to Korea, some to Japan and Taiwan, and a few to Thailand. Later in his employment with ConAgra, Bahrani also worked on shipments to Canada and Mexico. Bahrani allegedly knew several people that worked in ConAgra's meat documentation division, which was physically housed in the same building and on the same floor as the hide documentation division. According to Bahrani, he also, on occasion, visited the meat documentation division, either to speak with friends or to use that division's photocopying equipment. Bahrani was terminated from his employment with ConAgra on April 7, 1998, as part of a reduction in force. On that same date, Bahrani spoke with an FBI agent and informed him that Con[A]gra was altering government documents and that [he] needed to get immunity from prosecution for [him]self and for [his] co-workers. Id. at 449-50. The FBI subsequently turned that information over to USDA investigators.