Five members of the Sambado family, which owns one of the California's largest fruit distribution operations, have pleaded guilty to skimming income from their businesses.

The family owns A Sambado & Son and Prima Frutta Packing, which packs and ships about 30 per cent of California's apple crop each year.

Prosectors have said that patriarch Lawrence J Sambado and his sons Timothy and Richard Sambado are each charged with filing false income tax returns for the year 2002. Lawrence Sambado's wife Beverly Sambado was charged with two counts of structuring money transactions, and his daughter-in-law Marie Josee Dusablan-Sambado was charged with aiding and abetting those transactions.

All five pleaded guilty to the charges in signed plea agreements on Friday, and agreed to pay back $192,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

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