Burst bubble: Man created fake Bazooka gum company and stole $1.2 million, prosecutors say

By Lukas I. Alpert

Kashawn Williams intercepted a check meant for the bubble-gum manufacturer and then created a phony company called Bazooka 1 in order to deposit it, prosecutors say

Say it ain't so, Bazooka Joe.

The manufacturer of the classic Bazooka bubble gum was the victim of a clever con in which a man intercepted a $1.2 million check meant for the company and pocketed it by creating a fake company with an almost identical name, New York prosecutors said.

Kashawn Williams, 31, is accused of getting hold of the check in October 2022, during a period of corporate turmoil after the candy maker's then parent, the Topps Company, was sold by former Disney boss Michael Eisner and moved to new offices in lower Manhattan.

"Despite the decline in the use of paper checks, check fraud is on the rise," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "We urge New Yorkers and businesses alike to use secure electronic payment methods whenever possible to protect themselves from fraud."

The McLane Company, a distribution business based in Temple, Texas, had sent the check to the Bazooka Companies but mailed it to the old address, prosecutors said.

That's when Williams came into possession of the check, prosecutors said, although court filings didn't specify exactly how.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney declined to comment further but noted that the investigation was ongoing. An attorney for Williams declined to comment, and representatives for Bazooka and McLane had no immediate comment.

Just days after receiving the check, prosecutors said Williams incorporated a fictitious company he called the Bazooka Companies 1 Inc. He then opened a corporate bank account for the phony company and deposited the check, court documents said.

Over the next two weeks, Williams began writing checks from the phony business account to several co-conspirators in an effort to launder the money, prosecutors said. Williams wrote notes on the checks' memo lines like "renovations," "business loan," and "packaging preorder," according to the court filing.

The co-conspirators then deposited those checks into their own accounts and withdrew the cash. Williams also made several large cash withdrawals and transfers from the Bazooka 1 account to his own personal bank accounts, prosecutors said.

Bazooka gum dates back to 1947, when it was created by the Topps Company. Named after the World War II weapon, the gum became popular for the Bazooka Joe comic strip that was included in each package. Topps, which was famous for its line of baseball cards, was acquired by Eisner, the former chief executive of Walt Disney (DIS), in 2007 for $385 million.

Eisner had planned to take Topps public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, but the deal was scuttled when, in 2021, Topps lost its license with Major League Baseball to manufacture the cards after it was outbid by merchandising giant Fanatics. Early the following year, Eisner sold Topps to Fanatics for $500 million.

Eisner, however, held on to the Bazooka Candy Brands business, which he sold the following year to the private-equity firm Apax Partners for $700 million.

It was in the midst of all this upheaval that the check allegedly went missing.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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10-04-24 1226ET

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