Paul R. Steed, 58, of Stamford, Connecticut, has been charged with wire fraud and tax evasion after allegedly embezzling over $28 million from his former employer, Mars Inc., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced on March 26.
Steed, who worked remotely as the Global Price Risk Manager for Mars Wrigley’s Global Cocoa Enterprise, was indicted on seven counts of wire fraud and two counts of tax evasion. The charges stem from fraudulent activities he allegedly conducted between 2011 and 2023.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Steed created a shell company named MCNA LLC—designed to resemble Mars Chocolate North America—to funnel millions of dollars from Mars’s U.S. Department of Agriculture re-export credit program. Steed is accused of instructing sugar refineries to send payments intended for Mars to MCNA LLC, falsely posing as a legitimate Mars entity.
In another scheme, Steed allegedly redirected more than $700,000 in stock dividends Mars was due from its ownership in Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) by instructing Computershare Limited to make payments to MCNA LLC. In 2023, Steed reportedly used a forged letter to sell Mars’s shares in ICE, receiving a check for over $11.3 million, which he then deposited into the MCNA LLC account.
Steed also used a separate entity, Ibera LLC, to submit fraudulent invoices to Mars from 2013 through 2020, allegedly receiving approximately $580,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed that more than $18 million has been seized for forfeiture, and the department is seeking to seize a Greenwich home purchased with $2.3 million in stolen funds.
Steed now faces serious charges related to wire fraud and tax evasion, with potentially severe penalties.
