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Former FDA Chief Lester M. Crawford resigned as commissioner of the Food and Drug Adminstration only two months after being confirmed. Today he pled guilty to charges that he hid ownership of stock in food and drug companies that he would have been regulating as the FDA head.

Crawford hid the fact that he had ownership of shares in food and drink manufacturers Pepsico Inc. (PEP), Sysco Corp. (SYY), and drug company Embrex Inc. (EMBX). The Justice Department has charged Crawford yesterday with two misdemeanors. The complaint was made for conflict of interest and filing false financial disclosure reports.

Crawford's lawyer Barbara Van Gelder, was quoted in a Associated Press story quoted in this WashingtonPost.com article to say,  " he is going to plead guilty to two misdemeanors tomorrow afternoon, and he is going to admit his financial disclosures had errors and omissions, mostly with his wife's continued ownership of stocks. At the end of the day, he owned these stocks, and he will admit he owned them while he was at the FDA, and he will take responsibility for that."

Know More about business ethics ItsBadBusiness.com.