Milling & Baking News - December 6, 2016 - 18

Business X

New Mill Capital acquires former
Maryland Kraft Heinz baking plant
FEDERALSBURG, MD. - New Mill
Capital Holdings of New York has acquired a 103,000-square-foot plant in
Federalsburg that previously served
as a bread and dehydrated product
operation for Stove Top Stuffing and
other products of the Kraft Heinz Co.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
New Mill Capital now will look
to remarket the plant and property
in hopes of bringing new activity to
the site.
"We're very excited to be the new

owners of the bakery in Federalsburg," said Tom Murray, principal of
New Mill Capital Holdings. "This is a
great opportunity for anyone looking
for expanded bread production capacity and the ability to also produce
a dehydrated bakery or crouton type
of product."
The transaction included major production equipment used in the plant,
including bulk powder handling, large
batch mixing and gas-fired tray ovens.
"Much of the equipment is late

Former Cargill manager admits
to stealing at least $3.1 million
NEW YORK - Diane Backis, former accounting manager at Cargill,
pleaded guilty on Nov. 28 to stealing
at least $3.1 million from the Minneapolis-based company over a 10-year
period and causing at least $25 million in losses, according to the Department of Justice.
The announcement was made by
U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian
of the Northern District of New York;
special agent in charge Andrew W.
Vale of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (F.B.I.) Albany Division; and
special agent in charge Shantelle P.
Kitchen of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI),
New York Field Office.
Ms. Backis, 50, of Athens, N.Y.,
pleaded guilty to mail fraud and filing a false income tax return. While
at Cargill, Ms. Backis was responsible
for accounting functions in Albany

related to the company's grain operations, including creating customer
contracts, generating and mailing invoices, and receiving
and processing customer payments. As
part of her plea, Ms.
Backis admitted that
she defrauded Cargill
while working in its
Port of Albany facility, which receives,
stores and sells grain products.
"Ms. Backis stole millions of dollars
from her employer in a decade-long
scheme to enrich herself so she could
live beyond her means," Mr. Hartunian said. "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. Her guilty plea today sends a strong
message that crime does not pay."

Snyder's-Lance investing $38 million
in North Carolina expansion
RALEIGH, N.C. - Snyder's-Lance,
Inc. plans to invest $38 million over
three years at its headquarters and
production facility in Charlotte, N.C.,
according to the office of North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. Snyder'sLance intends to hire 70 workers for a
new production line in its South Boulevard manufacturing plant and 30
workers at its Ballantyne headquarters.
The project was made possible in
part by a performance-based grant
of up to $100,000 from the One
North Carolina Fund, a discretionary
18 / December 6, 2016 XMilling & Baking News

cash-grant program administered by
the North Carolina Department of
Commerce.
"Snyder's-Lance has called North
Carolina home for more than 100
years, and we are proud to expand
our operations here and continue to
invest in the future growth of our
great company," said Carl Lee, president and chief executive officer of
Snyder's-Lance. "North Carolina is
a great place to do business, and we
appreciate the support of our city,
county and state partners." MBN

model," said Eric Weiler, principal
of New Mill Capital Holdings, who
manages the firm's food processing
and packaging disposition efforts.
"With three complete drying lines
and bulk packaging, the plant offers
significant options for an operator going forward."
The Federalsburg facility sits on 22
acres and is within a 200-mile radius of
major East coast ports, including Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, New
York and Norfolk, Va. In addition to
being a turnkey bakery, the plant has
ample infrastructure to work for other
food and non-food uses, New Mill
Capital said. MBN
As part of her plea, Ms. Backis admitted that she stole hundreds of customer payments sent to Cargill totaling
at least $3,115,610 and deposited them
into her personal bank accounts, the
D.O.J. said. The D.O.J. said Ms. Backis
also regularly created fraudulent invoices and mailed them
to Cargill's customers,
and the fraudulent invoices charged Cargill's
customers prices substantially less than what
Cargill paid to acquire
the grain products, causing Cargill significant financial losses.
The fraudulent invoices also directed Cargill's customers to send payment directly to Ms. Backis, thereby
bypassing Cargill's corporate controls,
the D.O.J. noted.
"To hide her activities, Ms. Backis
made false entries into Cargill's accounting software to make it appear
that customers were paying prices
higher than those in her fraudulent invoices and that customers owed Cargill millions of dollars for delivered
grain products, only to reverse those
false entries," the D.O.J. said. "As a result, Cargill lost at least $25 million."
Ms. Backis faces up to 20 years in
prison, a three-year term of supervised
release and a fine of up to $250,000
when she is sentenced on March 28,
2017. As part of her guilty plea, Ms.
Backis has agreed to pay Cargill at
least $3.5 million in restitution and to
forfeit her house in Athens, an investment brokerage account and her Cargill pension benefits.
Cargill spokesman Pete Stoddart
called Ms. Backis' actions an isolated
incident by one employee at a single
Cargill location. He said the company
has audited its controls and trading
systems. MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - December 6, 2016

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