Mars Wrigley senior cocoa executive sentenced to jail for $28 million tax fraud

Mars Wrigley has been forced to recover significant losses, after a senior cocoa operations executive, Paul R Steed, was found guilty of major fraud and tax offences linked to the theft of $28 million from the company, reports Neill Barston.

The 59 year-old from Stamford, was sentenced to 63 months imprisonment by US  District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to 63, which followed an extensive investigation which drew in the FBI, IRS financial services, and US Department of Agriculture.

As the Department of Justice noted, according to court documents and statements made in the case hearing, between approximately 2011 and 2023, Steed was employed by Mars Wrigley, working from home as a Global Price Risk Manager for Mars Wrigley’s Global Cocoa Enterprise.

Notably, as the case revealed he was managing the company’s participation in the US Department of Agriculture’s USDA’s Sugar-Containing Products Re-Export Programme.

The cocoa buying operations of Mars, as with all major companies serving the global confectionery sector, remains critically important to the industry, with pricing of the key commodity having experienced significant volatility over the past two years.

Furthermore, as the case asserted, in 2016, Steed created a company, MCNA LLC, to mimic an actual Mars entity, Mars Chocolate North America.

Organised fraud
It was alleged that he then diverted more than $15 million in Mars assets to a bank account he set up in MCNA’s name mainly by directing sugar refineries purchasing Mars’s re-export credits, obtained through the USDA program, to pay MCNA LLC as if it were a legitimate Mars entity.

In addition to this, as the case against him outlined, Mars had an ownership interest in Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (“ICE”), a financial services company that operated financial exchanges and clearing houses, and received quarterly dividends in connection with that ownership.

In 2017, Steed directed Computershare Limited (“Computershare”), a company that ICE used for stock-related services, to pay MCNA LLC for Mars’s dividends from its ownership shares in ICE.

According to the Department of Justice, as a result, more than $700,000 in dividend payments were diverted to the MCNA LLC account. In 2023, after Steed had used a fraudulent letter purportedly from the Mars Treasurer authorising him to trade ICE shares, Steed directed Computershare to sell Mars’s ICE shares entirely.

Computershare issued a check in the amount of more than $11.3 million, which Steed deposited into the MCNA LLC account. In addition, from 2013 through 2020, Steed used a company he owned called Ibera LLC to invoice Mars for services Mars did not receive. Mars paid Ibera LLC more than $700,000 through this scheme.

As the case heard, Steed failed to report and pay taxes on his stolen income on his 2014 through 2023 federal tax returns. Judge Dooley ordered Steed to pay restitution of $28,410,489 to Mars, Inc., and $10,310,680 in back taxes linked to the IRS.

The government has reportedly seized, and Steed has agreed to forfeit, more than $18 million from bank accounts controlled by Steed, and the government is seeking to forfeit, or alternatively liquidate for restitution, a Greenwich home that Steed purchased with nearly $2.3 million in stolen funds.

Steed also sent approximately $2 million to Argentina, where he is a dual citizen, has family ties, and has a family ranch.

U.S. Attorney Sullivan said: “Justice is served by the imposition of this sentence.

“Thanks to the thorough investigative efforts by FBI, IRS-CI, and USDA-OIG special agents, Mr. Steed’s criminal conduct was quickly exposed. These agents not only identified the money that he stole, they successfully seized millions of dollars that will be returned to the victim company.”

“Today’s sentencing is a great example of what happens when the FBI, and our partners at the IRS, USDA-OIG, and the USAO combine to bring our investigative resources to bear on a complex, multi-faceted fraud scheme involving tens of millions of dollars,” said FBI New Haven Special Agent in Charge P.J. O’Brien.

“Utilising forfeiture statutes, expert forensic accounting techniques and court authorised search warrants, investigators recovered millions in embezzled funds and ensured that over nine years of back taxes, totaling millions of dollars, would be paid. The FBI remains committed to working closely with our private sector and government partners to prevent and address waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Inspector General John Walk added that Steed had  exploited an important USDA program intended to support American exporters to market U.S. agricultural products in international commerce for personal fraudulent gain.

The defendant had been arrested on March 26, 2025. On September 11, 2025, he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, and was released on a $5 million bond, is required to report to prison on March 5.