Dive Brief:
- The former chief financial officer of a New Jersey vending machine company was sentenced to six months in prison for his role in an elaborate fraud involving marketing funds from Pepsi Bottling Group.
- Joseph Belasco, 65, was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement. He was also ordered to pay $1 million to Pepsi and to pay a $30,000 fine.
- The sentencing springs from Belasco's guilty plea last month to tax fraud related to the scheme. He had originally faced multiple charges of mail fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.
Dive Insight:
What's particularly interesting about this case is that the specifics of the scheme – a money-laundering operation aimed at stealing a soft drink company's marketing-incentive funds – was also at the root of a case involving a fraud against Coca-Cola.
That seems like more than a simple coincidence. Hopefully someone – consultants, law-enforcement officials, whoever – is hard at work teaching soft-drink companies how to revamp their marketing programs to defend against such schemes.
