Chocolate factory treasurer: 'There is no scam'

Investor accuses Ivory Coast group of misusing millions of dollars.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

By Charles McChesney and Catie O'Toole

Staff writers

The two top officials of New York Chocolate denied reports that they embezzled funds that were meant to get the former Nestle factory in Fulton back in the chocolate business.

"There is no scandal. There is no scam," said Yalle Agbre, the company's treasurer. He and New York Chocolate CEO Jean-Claude Amon said at a Monday news conference that a minority partner in the company is spreading false rumors.

Reports published in opposition newspapers in the Ivory Coast claim that millions of dollars meant for the Fulton factory disappeared after being transferred from an Ivorian cocoa-growing cooperative to IC Trading, a company in Georgia.

Formed in 2004, after the 2003 shutdown of the Nestle factory in Fulton, New York Chocolate had 80 employees and reported production was growing near in January 2006. Five months later, the factory was down to a dozen workers and having trouble paying utility bills.

Amon and Agbre said Hausmann A. Banet, CEO of Lion Capital Management Group, an investment company with offices in Detroit and San Francisco, is the source of the reports.

Banet, reached by phone, said Amon's Pompey home was purchased with money meant for New York Chocolate. "We didn't give him approval. He wasted money of the company."

But Amon and Agbre said that Banet owns just 20 percent of New York Chocolate, and shared photocopies of a Delaware court decision showing that.

They also shared photocopies of a California court decision that ordered Banet - for whom the court lists five aliases - to pay New York Chocolate more than $600,000 in damages. That, said Yalle, came because Banet kept a New York state tax refund that should have gone to the Fulton operation.

Banet said that the cocoa-growing co-op, the Fonds de Regulation et de Controle Cafe Cacao or FRC, had sent $35.9 million for the factory, but that it ended up with IC Trading in Georgia.

The money did go to IC trading, Agbre said, and then on to pay for chocolate-making equipment. IC Trading was used because New York Chocolate had not yet been formed, he said.

The FRC chose his company to make the purchase over Lion Capital, Agbre said. He held up a folder and said it was "proof of transfers that were made."

Banet said he had contacted the U.S. government and written to the World Bank about the situation. He said the U.S. Department of State is investigating.

Amon said Banet had been a consultant who had been paid more than $200,000 for his services, including filing incorporation documents. Banet was paid for everything, Amon said.

"Even the wire transfer fee of $10," said Agbre.

Amon said he and members of New York Chocolate's board of directors have met with Banet in Chicago and New York City. Banet has asked for $36 million for his share of the company.

Agbre said that was far too much. The board put the company's total value at $25 million in 2005, after the company had purchased chocolate making equipment and the former Nestle plant.

L. Michael Treadwell, executive director of Operation Oswego County, the region's economic development agency, said New York Chocolate was current on its bills to the Industrial Development Authority.

He said his agency was involved in a legal dispute with Lion Capital over the co-generation plant next to the chocolate factory.

Amon said the accusations were ridiculous in view of the way international money transfers are scrutinized since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. And, he said, if someone had embezzled millions of dollars, wouldn't he run away?

Amon took issue with a report that said he was paid $300,000 a month. He held up a pay stub that he said showed his pay was much lower than that. Asked how much he made, Amon paused and said, "way, way, way lower - even below average for a CEO in Central New York."

Amon demanded a correction and apology from the Fulton-based Valley News, which ran a front-page story about the controversy that included Amon's photograph with the line, "At the center of the alleged scam."

"My integrity, my personal honor, is put at jeopardy by this information," Amon said referring to the story.

He said he was concerned for his four children, who attend school in the area. "I don't want my children to be ashamed of their father."

Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com and Catie O'Toole at cotoole@syracuse.com