#BENZINO RICO CHARGE FREE#
Kovacs and Grol paid also for the cases and transportation costs by giving Kearney 800 free cases. To counter the fines, Kearney bought 800 cases of Coca-Cola Classic from a retailer in New York Coke’s territory, shipped the product to Bethlehem, and Kovacs and Grol filed a counter claim to Coca-Cola. * Starting in late 1991, Coca-Cola began fining Lehigh Valley Coke for products transshipped by Kearney into the New York City market area, the suit says. Meanwhile, Lehigh Valley Coke was paying Kearney $5,000 a month for his outstanding “sales.” Large among the alleged payoffs were airplane tickets, including two for Kearney and his wife: a New York-to-London round-trip flight aboard the British Airways Concorde, valued at $10,542, which he charged and paid for with money from Caty or Pavlish.
The suit alleges Kovacs sold the cases to Pavlish and Caty Beverages at prices much lower than they normally would be billed, and that Caty Beverage made unrecorded cash payments to Kovacs from July to October in excess of $225,000.īy June of this year, Kovacs had bought the cooperation of more than 20 employees, friends and their families to further his “schemes,” according to the suit. in Bethlehem and Caty Beverage in Catasauqua. * Starting in March 1992, Kovacs and Grol invoiced at least 24 trailer loads (2,200 cases each and worth over $11,000) to Kearney Beverage on its monthly bills, but had them delivered to Pavlish Beverage Co. Again, Kovacs paid for employees’ silence with airline tickets to parts of the United States and Europe, and with cash. Lehigh Valley Coke would have terminated Kearney’s account, but Kovacs and Grol did not report the transshipping.Īlso in 1991, Kearney began lending Kovacs money, which the sales manager would repay double in cash, checks or free cases of soda. When bottler’s transship, or allow others to transship their products, Coca-Cola can impose fines of $10,000 and pay damages to the bottler whose territory was invaded. Transshipping is a violation of bottler’s contracts with the Coca-Cola Co., which establishes territories within which the bottler’s products must remain. * Starting in 1991, Kovacs and Grol sent free cases valued at $5,000 to Kearney Beverage on Stefko Boulevard in Bethlehem and allowed Peter Kearney to “transship” the cases to other markets where they brought a higher selling price. Highlighting one example, the suit says the two authorized numerous deliveries to an Amoco Station in Easton, where the operator gave the delivering employee $1,000 cash in an envelope with Grol’s name on it. of Pittsburgh, and paid them off with cash and airline tickets. To cover their tracks, Kovacs and Grol told other employees not to report them to senior management, namely Shaffer, or the corporate parent, Abarta Inc.
* Starting in 1989, Kovacs and Grol created false records showing $5,000 worth of free cases from the local plant were delivered to legitimate customers (free cases were a reward for good retailers), while instead they were sold to non-customers for cash, “which Kovacs shared with Grol.” The group engaged in five “schemes,” according to the suit: We bought Coca-Cola, and we sold Coca-Cola. Kearney did not return calls for comment, and Janet Hower of Caty Beverage said, “We didn’t do anything wrong. Shaffer confirmed he and Grol had been replaced at the plant.
#BENZINO RICO CHARGE CODE#
A federal civil code permits any damages to be tripled.
#BENZINO RICO CHARGE PLUS#
(operating as Caty Beverage Co.) are named co-defendants in the suit, which seeks to recover Coke’s losses plus additional costs and other damages. Kearney (of Bethlehem’s Kearney Beverage) and Stefko Distributing Co. Lehigh Valley Coke claims the total amount swindled is more than $500,000. Their “schemes” started small, netting $5,000 at a time, but steadily grew until the unreported transactions began involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, the suit says. Grol, and two local distributors worked out a plan over the last three years to sell thousands of cases of soda without recording the sales, according to the suit filed last Wednesday in U.S. Two local Coca-Cola managers embezzled thousands of dollars by selling soda they were supposed to give away free, then flew co-conspirators all over the world for their silence and cooperation, according to a $1.5 million federal lawsuit filed last week by Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
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