HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A former executive of snack maker Utz Quality Foods Inc. has pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded Utz out of approximately $1.4 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has announced.
Kevin Myers, former director of purchasing for Utz, pleaded guilty July 27 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan E. Schwab in Harrisburg, Pa., to one count charging him with wire fraud.
Myers and Jonathan Haas of Easton, the former owner of Haas Packaging and Design Inc., Bethlehem, Pa., were charged in June with wire fraud. The charges were filed against Myers and Haas pursuant to plea agreements with the government.
Haas Packaging was a vendor that supplied Utz with shelving and packaging products from January 2007 to August 2014, according to U.S. attorney Peter Smith. The defendants allegedly defrauded Utz by Haas’ submission of approximately 83 false invoices and approximately 43 bogus purchase orders prepared by Myers for products Utz never actually received. After Myers allegedly approved Haas’ false invoices for payment, Haas allegedly would kick back a portion of the proceeds to Myers. Haas allegedly received approximately $1.47 million from Utz as a result of the false invoices and kicked back approximately $651,000 of that amount to Myers.
The defendants also allegedly attempted to conceal kickbacks to Myers as payments for consulting services. Some of the kickbacks were in the form of checks payable to “Myers Packaging Consulting,” a fictional business entity created by Myers.
The specific wire-fraud charge relates to an alleged interstate wire transmission of a $26,000 check into a Myers Packaging Consulting bank account in January 2014. The government is also seeking forfeiture of approximately $1.4 million as proceeds of the scheme.
The maximum penalty under federal law is 20 years in prison, a term of supervised release following imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The Harrisburg office of the FBI investigated the case with Utz’s full cooperation.
Hanover, Pa.-based Utz, a privately owned and family-managed company founded in 1921, manufactures and markets snack foods in the United States and internationally. It produces a full line of snack products, including potato chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, tortillas, veggie snacks, popcorn and more. It distributes its products nationally through grocery, mass-merchant, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores and other channels under the Utz, Zapp’s, Dirty Potato Chips, Good Health, Bachman, Bachman Jax, Wachusett, Snikiddy and other brands.
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