BRIDGEPORT – A former Mars Inc. employee from Stamford was sentenced Jan. 22 by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley to 63 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for fraud and tax offenses stemming from his theft of more than $28 million from his former employer.
Paul Steed, 59, of Stamford, was arrested on March 26, 2025, and pled guilty on Sept. 11, 2025, to two counts of wire fraud. Steed, who is released on a $5 million bond, is required to report to prison on March 5.
Judge Dooley ordered Steed to pay restitution of $28,410,489 to Mars, Inc., and $10,310,680 in back taxes to the IRS.
The announcement was made by David Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut; P.J. O’Brien, special agent in charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI; Thomas Demeo, acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England; and U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector General John Walk.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between approximately 2011 and 2023, Steed was employed by Mars Wrigley, a subsidiary of Mars, working remotely from his home in Stamford. Steed served in several positions at the company and last served as global price risk manager for Mars Wrigley’s Global Cocoa Enterprise.
As part of his employment, Steed was responsible for managing Mars Wrigley’s participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Sugar-Containing Products Re-Export Program. In approximately 2016, Steed created a company, MCNA LLC, to mimic an actual Mars entity, Mars Chocolate North America. He then diverted more than $15 million in Mars assets to a bank account he set up in MCNA’s name mainly by directing sugar refineries purchasing Mars’s re-export credits, obtained through the USDA program, to pay MCNA LLC as if it were a legitimate Mars entity.
The international candymaker has offices in Stamford and Greenwich, for which Steed worked.
Steed had faced 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.
Mars had an ownership interest in Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., a financial services company that operated financial exchanges and clearing houses and received quarterly dividends in connection with that ownership. In 2017, Steed directed Computershare Limited, a company that ICE utilized for stock-related services, to pay MCNA LLC for Mars’s dividends from its ownership shares in ICE.
As a result, more than $700,000 in dividend payments were diverted to the MCNA LLC account. In 2023, after Steed had used a fraudulent letter purportedly from the Mars treasurer authorizing him to trade ICE shares, Steed directed Computershare to sell Mars’s ICE shares entirely. Computershare issued a check in the amount of more than $11.3 million, which Steed deposited into the MCNA LLC account.
In addition, from 2013 through 2020, Steed used a company he owned called Ibera LLC to invoice Mars for services Mars did not receive. Mars paid Ibera LLC more than $700,000 through this scheme.
Additionally, Steed failed to report and pay taxes on his stolen income on his 2014 through 2023 federal tax returns.
The government has seized, and Steed has agreed to forfeit, more than $18 million from bank accounts controlled by Steed, and the government is seeking to forfeit, or alternatively liquidate for restitution, a Greenwich home that Steed purchased with nearly $2.3 million in stolen funds. Steed also sent approximately $2 million to Argentina, where he is a dual citizen, has family ties, and has a family ranch.
“Justice is served by the imposition of this sentence,” Sullivan said. “Thanks to the thorough investigative efforts by FBI, IRS-CI, and USDA-OIG special agents, Mr. Steed’s criminal conduct was quickly exposed. These agents not only identified the money that he stole, they successfully seized millions of dollars that will be returned to the victim company.”
Inspector General John Walk explained how Steed committed the fraud.
“Mr. Steed exploited an important USDA program intended to support American exporters to market U.S. agricultural products in international commerce for personal fraudulent gain,” Walk said.
