Prominent SC businesswoman pleads guilty in $35 million theft from large U.S. company
A prominent South Carolina businesswoman and her Charlotte business partner admitted on Wednesday to conspiring to steal $35 million from one of America’s largest companies.
Jennifer Maier of Clover, S.C., pleaded guilty with two men in connection with what prosecutors called a years-long bribery and kickback scheme against Cargill, the Minnesota-based agricultural giant.
Each faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They were freed on bail until their sentencing dates, which have not been set.
Maier and Brian Ewert of Charlotte admitted to conspiring with a Cargill manager, Choung “Shawn” Nguyen of Wichita, Kansas, to overcharge Cargill for supplies sold by their SC company, Women’s Distribution Services Inc., according to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.
Ewert and Maier co-owned WDS. The company offered packaging products and warehousing and distribution services to the food industry, manufacturing and health care, the Charlotte Business Journal reported in 2013.
To pull off the fraud, the 53-year-old Ewert paid more than $1 million in bribes to Nguyen and another Cargill employee who was not charged in the case, prosecutors said.
Ewert made regular cash payments to Nguyen and his uncharged co-conspirator at Cargill to pay for family vacations and flights on private jets, Ewert and Nguyen admitted in court on Wednesday. Ewert also gave them “expensive gifts, including electronics,” according to the news release by the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray in Charlotte.
Maier was chief executive officer of WDS, according to the news release. Ewert was its primary sales rep, while Nguyen was a Cargill procurement manager.
The conspiracy stretched from 2009 through 2016, when Cargill began questioning WDS sales contracts.
As Cargill grew more suspicious and demanded proof of pricing, Maier “joined the conspiracy by creating at least 100 bogus invoices” for Cargill, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. In so doing, prosecutors said, the 51-year-old Maier tried to hide more than $500,000 in fraudulent overcharges.
The overcharges totaled $35 million over the years, according to prosecutors. From 2012 to 2016, Cargill bought nearly $544 million in products from WDS, prosecutors said.
In April 2017, FBI agents raided the Lake Wylie home of Maier and her husband, in the 4600 block of Island Forks Road, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
Maier was named as a 2016 Women Business Enterprise Star by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the Observer reported that year.
In 2014, Maier was among 40 or so business leaders invited to a White House Business Council briefing about the Affordable Care Act, the Observer reported at the time.
In an interview with the Observer at the time, she called the act “just an extension of welfare. Like a lot of people, I don’t think it’s going to be effective. When government mandates businesses to do certain things, it never succeeds.”
Maier did not immediately respond to a phone message from the Observer.
Nguyen and his uncharged co-conspirator at Cargill were fired in May 2016, prosecutors said.
In a statement to the Observer, company officials said: “Cargill is pleased that these individuals have been brought to justice and would like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service and others involved in prosecuting this case.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 5:13 PM.