A former Mars Wrigley employee, Michael Mayfield, has been handed a three-year prison sentence for executing a fraud scheme that siphoned over $1.2 million from the confectionery giant, as federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia divulged. Alongside his incarceration, Mayfield will face three years of supervised release and is mandated to repay a total of $1,269,457.56, as restitution to the company. The sentence was pronounced following an admission of guilt by Mayfield, who was once the environmental manager at the Mars Wrigley plant in Flowery Branch.
Mayfield's tenure at Mars Wrigley, according to a FOX 5 Atlanta report, saw him orchestrate a fraudulent operation where check payments intended for the company's recycling processes were intercepted and redirected to his own venture, WWJ Recycling. These activities spanned from December 2016 through 2022 and involved creating phony invoices from a supplier for items that were never delivered to the company, which included football supplies and event tickets he used to allegedly enhance his local stature.
The invoices, which falsely billed over $199,000 in various items such as gift cards, and tickets to University of Georgia football games, were part of a larger embezzlement in collaboration with an accomplice. They concocted over $750,000 in fake invoices through Mayfield's WWJ Recycling, later submitted to Mars Wrigley for payment. As reported by Miami Herald, Mayfield's fraudulent actions were motivated by a desire to build his reputation in the local community.
In reference to the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan commented, "Mayfield devised a false invoicing scheme to betray and defraud his employer of more than $1 million," while being conveyed by FOX 5 Atlanta.
