Landec Corporation, a Delaware company with principal offices in California, is a health and wellness company. Its common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
On December 1, 2018, Landec acquired Yucatan Foods, L.P., which owned a guacamole manufacturing plant in Mexico called Procesadora Tanok, S de RL de C.V. (Tanok).
In its 10-Q filed on January 2, 2020, Landec disclosed that it had initiated an investigation into potential environmental and FCPA compliance matters associated with regulatory permitting at the Tanok facility in Mexico. As part of the company's internal investigation, Landec retained the law firm Latham & Watkins, LLP, on October 21, 2019, and shortly after that voluntarily disclosed the investigation to the SEC, DOJ, and the Mexican Attorney General's Office. The agencies subsequently opened their own investigations into the matter, and Landec said it was cooperating with the government. The company further clarified that the conduct at issue began prior to the Yucatan Foods acquisition.
On November 14, 2022, Landec changed its name to Lifecore Biomedical, Inc.
On November 16, 2023, the DOJ issued a letter pursuant to the agency's FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy to Lifecore declining to prosecute the company despite the bribery committed by Yucatan and Tanok. Under the terms of the declination, Lifecore agreed to disgorge $406,505, which represented the remaining amount of costs avoided after incurring expenses to construct a wastewater treatment pland and paying Mexican regulators the duties the company owed. The DOJ determined that a declination was appropriate given the company's self-disclosure of the misconduct, its cooperation, and the appropriate remediation it conducted.
The SEC investigation appears to be ongoing.
