Lester Mills Crawford, Jr. (March 13, 1938 – December 23, 2021) was an American veterinarian and former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who was appointed by President George W. Bush.

[1] On October 17, 2006, he pleaded guilty to a conflict of interest and false reporting of information about stocks he owned in food, beverage and medical device companies he was in charge of regulating.

His 2005 nomination was controversial because Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington, both Democrats, threatened to place holds on his confirmation vote until the FDA made its long-delayed decision on whether or not to allow emergency contraception to be sold over the counter, while Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a Republican, threatened to place a hold because the FDA failed to require new labels for condoms warning that they do not fully protect against sexually transmitted disease.

[9][10] On October 16, 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Crawford with lying and violating conflict-of-interest laws for falsely reporting his ownership of stock in companies regulated by the FDA.

He falsely stated in a 2004 government filing that he and his wife sold their shares of Sysco and Kimberly-Clark, when in fact they continued to hold them, and also failed to disclose income from exercising stock options in Embrex Inc.[11] Crawford was married since 1963 to Catherine Walker of Birmingham, Alabama.