Fired snack food exec charged with milking Rochester company’s credit cards for $600K

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A sacked executive at a Rochester snack food company was charged with using more than $ 600,000 in corporate credit cards for travel and other personal purchases.

Thomas J. Wiechmann, 55, of Austin, Minn., Was charged this week in Olmsted County District Court on four counts related to the fraud committed from 2013-2019 while he was the Chief Financial Officer of Reichel Foods.

Wiechmann was charged by subpoena and put on trial on October 27th. Court records do not list a lawyer for him. Messages left for Wiechmann on Friday were not returned.

The prosecution alleges that Wiechmann has filed hundreds of charges totaling $ 603,172.96 over the years.

“Hardly a day went by,” it says in the charges, “without unauthorized credit card charges [on] Wiechmann’s company credit cards. “

The purchases were apparently as varied as they were plentiful, according to the fees, and included corporate funds for hotels, airline tickets, meals, entertainment, a custom alarm service, credit reports, and items from Fleet Farm, Menards, Lowe’s, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Hy-Vee.

The fraudulent allegations were strongest in 2017 and 2018, with more than $ 300,000 being embezzled in those two years, according to the criminal complaint.

“Wiechmann … assumed a special position of trust in the company,” said the indictment.

He was dismissed after almost 24 years at Reichel Foods on March 18, 2021, the complaint said, “after it was found that he had abused his position of trust and violated his duty of loyalty”.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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