Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Lester Crawford, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was charged in federal court with lying about owning shares of companies subject to FDA regulation.

Prosecutors charged Crawford, 68, with making a false declaration and having a conflict of interest. He stated in 2004 that shares of Sysco Corp. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. had been sold when he and his wife continued to hold them, and he failed to disclose income from stock options in Embrex Inc., U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said in the charging documents.

``Crawford did not disclose his income from the Nov. 14, 2004, exercise of Embrex stock options'' or the Kimberly-Clark and Sysco stock, Taylor said in the document. Crawford and his wife earned more than $130,000 from the investments that year, Taylor said.

Crawford will be arraigned tomorrow in U.S. court in Washington. Prosecutors have been probing his financial dealings since his unexpected resignation in September 2005, two months after his Senate confirmation. Crawford didn't return a phone message left at Policy Directions Inc., a Washington lobbying firm where he works as senior counsel.

Crawford, who was acting or deputy FDA commissioner for more than three years, also served as chairman of the FDA's Obesity Working Group in 2003 and 2004 while owning shares of Sysco, a distributor of snack foods, and Pepsico Inc., the world's No. 2 soft drink maker, according to court papers. The panel was formed to study the link between weight and health in the U.S.

Bush Nominee

President George W. Bush nominated Crawford to become FDA Commissioner in February 2005. Two Democratic Senators, Patty Murray of Washington and Hillary Clinton of New York, blocked Crawford's nomination until HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt said the FDA would decide on Barr Pharmaceutical's application to sell the Plan B morning-after contraceptive without a prescription.

Crawford, from Demopolis, Alabama, holds a doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.

Barbara Van Gelder, a Washington attorney representing Crawford, didn't immediately return a phone message.

The case is U.S. v. Crawford, 06-438, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Cary O'Reilly in Washington at caryoreilly@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 16, 2006 15:25 EDT