Ousted bread distributor alleges racketeering scheme

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Ousted bread distributor alleges racketeering scheme

Newport News man claims bread company, bank forged documents in his case

NEWPORT NEWS — A man who once ran what he says was among Pepperidge Farm’s most profitable bread distribution routes statewide contends he was illegally ousted from the business three years ago.

Aaron C. Jackson, 51, of Newport News, says that the truck route — in which he would supply Pepperidge Farm bread to Wal-Marts in Newport News and York, a commissary at the Fort Eustis Army base, a large Farm Fresh and several other local grocery stores — was taken from him under false pretenses.

In a $35 million lawsuit filed in Newport News Circuit Court, Jackson contends that beginning in 2007, Pepperidge Farm pushed him out of the business after he refused company efforts to add underperforming stores to his route. He says a regional manager told him at the time that several profitable stores would be taken from him “one way or another.”

Now, Jackson has added racketeering conspiracy claims to the suit. He asserts that Pepperidge Farm; its parent company, Campbell’s Soup; and Bank of America — the bank that lent Jackson the cash to buy the distributorship in 2002 — worked together in recent years to falsify documents pertaining to the case.

He accuses them of creating documents after the fact, altering them, and forging his signature.

Jackson said the racketeering allegations got a big boost two months ago. Jackson had previously thought he had lost the document, and told Pepperidge Farm he couldn’t find them. But then he asked his daughter to remove some of her belongings from his attic. During the cleaning, he said, she found one of her father’s loan documents stuck inside a yearbook.

That document, a promissory note, had different dates and signatures from the version of the same document recently provided to Jackson by the bank. There are other discrepancies between the documents — such as the monthly amount paid on the loan — that could also become a matter of dispute.

Aside from Pepperidge Farm, Campbell’s Soup and Bank of America, another person named as a defendant in the suit is Ernest Billups, the Newport News man who ended up with part of Jackson’s bread route, the suit says.

“They stuck it to me,” Jackson said. “Now I’m going to stick it to them … I got the originals, and they are done.”

Jackson’s attorney, Ken Golski, of Norfolk, said he has spent several hours talking with Jackson about details of the case. From those conversations, he said, he finds Jackson credible in his assertions that the signatures are forged, and that he didn’t sign several of the documents purported to be his.

“There may be something rotten here, and I do think that there is,” Golski said. “I’ve worked internally in companies and as a litigator, and I certainly have seen (document fraud) happen. That is the theory, and that is the belief. It certainly is not past their realm of capability that they could do this kind of thing.”

Golski mentioned the recent “Robo-signing” scandal, in which companies associated with major national banks falsified mortgage documents — including fake signatures signed by employees paid by the hour.

Pepperidge Farm and Campbell’s Soup, however, say flatly that no document fraud ever occurred in the Jackson case.

“We believe that Mr. Jackson’s allegations are wholly without merit, and we look forward to arguing our case in court,” said Anthony Sanzio, a spokesman for Campbell’s Soup in New Jersey. “That applies to all aspects of the case, particularly to the allegation (about forging and recreating documents) … The entire case is wholly without merit.”

Billups could not be reached for comment last week. “The plaintiff is responsible for his own actions or non-actions,” he said in a court filing. “Any benefit or consequence he faced … is believed to have been under his control.”

Bank of America officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jackson bought the Pepperidge Farm truck distribution route in 2002 for $105,000. All went well for about five years, until the company continually demanded that Jackson add some non-profitable stores to his mix.

Jackson rejected those entreaties — which he says he had every right to refuse under his contract — on the grounds that they would drag down his business. After his refusals, his suit says, Pepperidge Farm then decided to split his route into two — seeking to combine several non-performing stores with Jackson’s profitable ones.

But first they had to get Jackson out of the way, he contends.

In April 2008, he asserts in the suit, his regional manager called to tell him that Wal-Mart no longer wanted him servicing their stores. His lawsuit contends that Wal-Mart had said no such thing. A month later, Jackson said, Pepperidge Farm terminated his contract, citing complaints from Wal-Mart as a basis.

But Jackson asserts such complaints were made up. He says that a lower-level employee inside Wal-Mart had made up stories about finding moldy bread and Jackson being short on product, passing that word to higher-ups.

But the employee who made those complaints, Jackson contended in an interview, had ulterior motives. Jackson says she was Billups’ girlfriend. Billups was the man who ended up getting one of the two bread distribution routes that arose in Jackson’s stead, the lawsuit says.

“Pepperidge Farm and Billups encouraged and induced stores in Jackson’s route to stop doing business with Jackson,” the suit says. “In doing so, Pepperidge Farm and Billups intended to develop a pretext under which Jackson’s (contract) could be terminated.”

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