Tyson CFO apologizes for drunken arrest on earnings call
Tyson Foods CFO John R. Tyson (Credit: Washington County Sheriff's Office)
Tyson Foods Chief Financial Officer John R. Tyson delivered a second apology Monday after his high-profile arrest last week, this time expressing his remorse to investors over the incident.
"I'm embarrassed, and I want to let you know that I take full responsibility for my action," Tyson, 32, said during the company's earnings call. "This was an incident inconsistent with our company values, as well as my personal values."
Tyson also issued a company-wide apology to his colleagues last week.
Tyson was arrested in the early hours of Nov. 6 after police say they discovered him asleep in a stranger's home.
He was charged with public intoxication and criminal trespass after Fayetteville, Arkansas, police responded to a burglary call from a "college-age" woman who said she had just arrived home to find a man she did not know asleep in her bed, according to the preliminary police report.
Police detained and interrogated Tyson at the station, as partially seen in this video clip.
Police entered the home and found the suspect asleep in the back bedroom, and pulled his identification from his clothes, which were lying on the floor.
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The officer said he woke Tyson up, but the executive did not verbally respond and tried to go back to sleep. The report described Tyson's movements as "sluggish and uncoordinated."
The police report said there was an "odor of intoxicants coming from Tyson's breath and person," and he was arrested due to his apparent "level of intoxication" and his "unlawful presence in the house" where the occupants did not know him.
Tyson was promoted to CFO in late September, after joining the company in 2019. Prior to joining Tyson, he held various roles in investment banking, private equity, and venture capital, including at JPMorgan.
He is the son of Tyson Foods board chair John H. Tyson, and the great-grandson of Tyson founder John W. Tyson.
A Tyson Food spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement following his arrest, "We’re aware of the incident and as this is a personal matter, we have no additional comment."
Tyson is not the only company executive to get into recent trouble in Arkansas. Beyond Meat suspended its former Chief Operating Officer, Doug Ramsey, in September following his arrest for allegedly biting a man's nose during an altercation following a college football game in Fayetteville. He left the company a month later.