Maldonado v. Department of Agriculture

SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge:

Ernest Maldonado worked for decades in a Los Angeles produce company where he rose from a job loading and unloading trucks to the position of head of the vegetable department. In 1990, new owners purchased the company, looted it, and made Maldonado titular president during the company’s collapse. Maldonado here seeks review of the Department of Agriculture’s administrative order finding that he was “responsibly connected” to the company under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA”), which prohibits him from working in the produce industry for a period of…