Dive Brief:
- Former Cargill accounting manager Diane Backis pleaded guilty to stealing at least $3.1 million from the company over the past decade, Food Business News reported. She also admitted to causing the loss of at least $25 million for the company, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Backis pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud and filing a false income tax return in addition to acts of fraud she committed while working in Cargill's Port of Albany facility, where the company receives, stores and sells grain products.
- She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She has agreed to pay Cargill $3.5 million in restitution and forfeit her house, investment brokerage account and Cargill pension. She will be sentenced in March.
Dive Insight:
"She stole money by diverting customer payments to her personal bank accounts and sold grain products for millions less than her employer paid, causing enormous financial losses," U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northern District of New York said in a statement. "Her guilty plea today sends a strong message that crime does not pay."
Backis' scheme, convincing Cargill customers to buck protocol and send invoices directly to her rather than corporate offices, was long-running and calculated. The significance of the losses she caused for the company are due in part to the fact that she charged notably less than Cargill would have on false invoices for these products, and she pocketed the money rather than reporting it.
This wouldn't be the first time Cargill was entangled in a fraud scheme. In 2013, Cargill admitted to being a victim of a rare type of fraud after arranging to buy 1.2 million biodiesel credits from a New York broker in 2010. The company later discovered that the credits were invalid.