The poultry production company George’s Inc. has accused its former director of corporate engineering of feathering his own nest.
While at the family-owned Springdale company, Thomas Miller was in charge of managing commercial construction projects, including overseeing contractors and payments, according to George’s lawsuit filed Aug. 15 in Washington County Circuit Court.
“Beginning as early as 2022, Miller began engaging in fraud, embezzlement and theft by submitting falsified invoices directly to George’s and directing contractors to do the same,” the lawsuit alleges. “These actions led to improper payments made by George’s for services that were never rendered.”
George’s said it paid more than $2.8 million for goods or services it didn’t receive.
The lawsuit alleged that Miller’s “misconduct was motivated by personal gain. Specifically, Miller orchestrated this scheme to benefit from free or discounted work performed by George’s contractors on his personal property.”
Miller began working for the poultry company in 2013, but his first fraudulent act occurred in 2022 in connection with George’s construction project in Edinburg, Virginia, according to the lawsuit.
Miller allegedly provided the general contractor with two invoices from Marie Industrial LLC of Springdale for nearly $1 million each, the lawsuit said. Miller said the invoices were for robots that George’s was buying for the project, but neither the general contractor nor George’s ever received the equipment, the lawsuit said.
The general contractor, however, paid the invoices.
The lawsuit said that the problems came to light when Miller turned in an April invoice from Salazar Construction LLC of Springdale seeking a 50% down payment of $495,000 for future work to be done at the construction project in Virginia.
George’s also accused Miller of intending to have George’s help pay for his personal construction project on 40 acres near Beaver Lake in Rogers.
Miller had hired Salazar Construction, directed by Jose Salazar, who is the principal officer of both Salazar Construction and Marie Industrial, to work on his personal project, the lawsuit said.
The alleged fake invoices from two companies “served to disguise and compensate for the work performed” on Miller’s property, “further enabling Miller to fraudulently shift personal expenses to George’s accounts,” the lawsuit said.
Salazar Construction and Marie Industrial also were named as defendants in the case.
The allegations against Miller include fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. All defendants face allegations of civil conspiracy.
Salazar didn’t return a call for comment and Miller couldn’t be reached for comment.
George’s is represented in the lawsuit by attorneys Marshall Ney and Logan Vickery of Friday Eldredge & Clark’s Rogers office.
George’s reported $1.7 billion in revenue for its fiscal year that ended Sept. 2, 2023, down from $1.9 billion the previous year. As of May, it had 7,500 employees and 4,800 in Arkansas.
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