Cedar Grove Man Pleads Guilty To Defrauding PepsiCo. Of $2.9M With Caldwell Resident

A Cedar Grove man today plead guilty to defrauding the soda maker Pepsi Bottling Group out of nearly $3 million over a 10-year span along with a Caldwell resident, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Joseph Belasco, 62, of Cedar Grove, pleaded guilty in a plea hearing before Judge Linares in Newark Wednesday for conspiring with Edwin Glasspool, 53, of Caldwell, and providing false tax forms in 2008 for consulting services that were never offered to Pepsi, according to authorities. 

Belasco is facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Belasco also agreed to pay Pepsi $1 million in restitution, according to the press release.

Belasco is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2014.

Belasco formed Impact Cause Related Marketing in 1998, a subsidiary of Culinary Ventures Vending, that placed and stocked vending machines, according to the U.S. Attorney’s press release. 

Belasco’s Impact Marketing was supposed to provide Pepsi Bottling Co. with leads for new customers who would purchase Pepsi products. He would then receive commissions from Pepsi for as long as those clients remained Pepsi customers. 

In addition, Impact Marketing would receive rebates as part of finding new clients, according to the press release. 

Glasspool was a Pepsi employee charged with finding new clients, and he would assign those clients to Impact Market, as well as reassign existing Pepsi customers to Belasco’s business, according to the press release. 

Between 1998 and 2008, Impact Marketing received $2.9 million in commissions and rebates as a result of this scheme, according to authorities.

In addition, Glasspool — who previously pleaded guilty — and his wife received as much as $200,000 in unlawful income from Belasco, according to the press release.