Man Who Stole $28 Million From Mars Inc. Sentenced

A Connecticut man who stole more than $28 million from his former employer Mars, Inc. has been sentenced to 63 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for fraud and tax offenses.

Paul R. Steed has also been ordered to pay restitution of $28,410,489 to Mars, Inc., and $10,310,680 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In addition, Steed has agreed to forfeit more than $18 million from bank accounts he controlled, and the government is seeking a Greenwich home that he purchased with nearly $2.3 million in stolen funds.

According to court documents, between approximately 2011 and 2023, Steed was employed by Mars Wrigley, a subsidiary of Mars. Inc., 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.

Steed was responsible for managing Mars Wrigley’s participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 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.

In 2017, Steed had more than $700,000 in dividend payments diverted to the MCNA LLC account. In 2023, using a fraudulent letter purportedly from the Mars treasurer, Steed deposited a check in the amount of more than $11.3 million into the MCNA LLC account.

In addition, from 2013 through 2020, Steed used another 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, prosecutors said.

Steed failed to report and pay taxes on his stolen income on his 2014 through 2023 federal tax returns.

Steed was arrested on March 26, 2025. On September 11, 2025, he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. Steed was released on a $5 million bond and is required to report to prison on March 5.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service.