A Rhode Island slaughterhouse was fined $20,000 and placed on three years of federal probation for fraudulently claiming its meat hade passed federal inspections, officials announced Tuesday.

Rhode Island Beef and Veal pleaded guilty to defrauding customers by claiming that beef had been inspected under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), preparing beef without complying with FMIA inspection requirements, and defrauding customers by use of an official inspection mark of the Secretary of Agriculture without authorization, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island.

According to court documents, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service suspended RI Beef and Veal on Aug. 19, 2019, and withdrew its inspector. When a USDA supervisor visited the plant eight days after the suspension notice was served, they found employees packing meat and fraudulently applying USDA marks of inspections. Packaged meat with fraudulent USDA stickers was also found stored in bins.

USDA inspectors must be present for the marks to be applied to packaged meat.

The next day, a USDA inspector visited the slaughterhouse and found 224 pounds of unmarked ground beef and a 594-pound half carcass of beef cut for delivery to a customer in Connecticut who supplies restaurants.

Micheal A. Quattrucci, one of the company's owners, pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced last year to one year of federal probation and ordered to pay a fine of $1,000.

-- with reporting by TMX