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Taco Bell vendor charged in sweepstakes rigging
The big Taco Bell sweepstakes in 1986 was called "Wheels, Reels and Meals" and promised the lucky winners such prizes as a $28,500 Corvette and $25,000 in cash.
But a two-year investigation by the Mexican fast-food chain and federal authorities has shown that the heavily advertised sweepstakes should perhaps have been named "Wheels and Deals".
A federal grand jury indictment issued here recently alleges that the Taco Bell contest was rigged so that major prize winners were not legitimate, randomly selected customers, but friends and relatives of executives at the company that ran the high-stakes promotion, C&K Marketing of Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Two C&K Marketing executives as well as three of their relatives and friends were charged with mail and wire fraud in connection with the alleged prize-rigging scam and are scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 1.
According to the indictment, C&K's president and vice president, respectively, John Edward Curtin III and Kevin Joseph Kissane, arranged that a friend, James Frederick Lee of San Diego, Calif., be listed as the winner of the grand prize Corvette and that it be shown he had "opted for" $28,500 in cash instead of the car. The indictment alleged that C&K pocketed the money.
It also charged that Curtin and Kissane contrived that Jerome S. Baratta, a car dealer in New Jersey and a relative of Kissane would win the second prize of $25,000. Again, it was alleged that Baratta was only a "paper winner". Curtin's brother, Jim John Curtin, was also named.
All five were similarly charged with rigging a promotion for Alpha Beta supermarkets.
Neither Taco Bell nor alpha Beta was charged with any wrongdoing. Indeed, federal investigators noted they helped uncover the scheme and cooperated in the investigation.
"Taco Bell was victimized", said Lisa Holler, a spokeswoman for Taco Bell.
She said," Taco Bell first became suspicious of an irregularity when one of its district managers had trouble in locating a winner. The chain subsequently noticed that several winners' names, provided by C&K, were misspelled".
"Suspicions led to an investigation by our own staff", Holler said. "We talked to the wife of our $28,500 winner, and she knew nothing of her husband's winning. We continued to dig deeper".
"At Taco Bell's prodding, C&K at one point provided information from A CPA firm that showed the contest to be legitimate", Holler said. But she noted that Taco Bell learned that a relative of a C&K executive, who has since resigned, was with the accounting firm.
Stanley N. Lupkin, an attorney representing one of the C&K executives, said the defendants "have done nothing criminally wrong and look forward to their vindication after the trial". He said the company has been in business at least 10 years and until now had "no blemish on its record".
Lupkin said that C&K has worked for a number of retail clients, including restaurants. He said it has done a substantial amount of work for Pepsico, including not only its Taco Bell subsidiary but also Burger King as well. Burger King would not comment on its relationship with C&K.
Holler said that Taco Bell has run three game promotions in the last five years, including the "Wheels, Reels and Meals" sweepstakes, and that it is not very interested in such projects anymore. "Our sales results indicate we're more successful with focusing on products and quality rather than toys and trinkets", she said. "But if something does come up, we'll certainly be more cautious".
Source: BonusGambler.com Editors' Choice
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