The fraud also involved an onetime employee of the Hanover, Pennsylvania, company, the U.S. Attorney's Office says.
An Easton area man is charged with helping defraud Utz Quality Foods out of nearly $1.5 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania reports.
Jonathan Haas, 45, was the owner of Haas Packaging & Design in Upper Nazareth Township, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
He was working between January 2010 and August 2014 with Utz's then director of purchasing Kevin Myers, 38, formerly of Abbottstown, Pennsylvania, in a scheme that involved about 83 false invoices and about 43 bogus purchase orders, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Haas and Myers were charged Tuesday with wire fraud in paperwork filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The government has plea agreements with the two men awaiting the court's approval, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
U.S. Attorney Peter Smith laid out the alleged scheme in the news release and in court papers.
Haas Packaging & Design was a vendor supplying the Hanover, Pennsylvania, snack food company with shelving and packaging products, Smith explained. Haas would submit the phony invoices and purchase orders prepared by Myers for shelving and packaging products Utz never received, Smith said.
Myers would approve Haas' payment paperwork and then Haas would kick back a portion of the money to Meyers, Smith said.
Haas received about $1,474,765 from Utz and sent about $651,000 to Meyers, Smith said. Some of the kickbacks were shown as payments for services to a bogus business called Meyers Packaging Consulting, Smith said.
The wire fraud charge relates specifically to an interstate wire transfer of $26,000 into a Myers Packaging Consulting bank account in January 2014, Smith said.
The case was investigated by the FBI's Harrisburg office and Utz cooperated, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The maximum sentence Haas and Myers face is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. They would be under supervision after their releases, court papers say
Haas, as part of his guilty plea, has agreed to pay back the money he made from the scheme, court papers say. He also won't object if the government wants to turn over his records to the IRS, court papers say.
The phone at Haas' home was disconnected and a message seeking comment and Haas' current status with the company left at the business wasn't immediately returned. The company's website wasn't functioning properly on Wednesday afternoon. Haas' attorney Stanley Margle, who was in a client meeting, didn't immediately return a phone message.
Incorporation papers say Haas' company was in a home in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, but contact information is for 300 Industrial Drive in Upper Nazareth. The company was incorporated in 1993, database entries show. A Linkedin page for the company says it was founded in 1989 and employs between one and 10 people.
Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.