Local baker says rival stole his bread and butter ($30 mil. recipe heist/terrorism ties?)

The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | July 1, 2003 | Michael Currie Schaffer

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Local baker says rival stole his bread and butter
Espionage, Philly-style: A N.C. man wanted the secret to a better hoagie, authorities say.
By Michael Currie Schaffer
Inquirer Staff Writer

Industrial spies in Bavaria heist automotive designs. In the Silicon Valley, they take computer programs. And around here, apparently, hoagie-roll recipes.

An underhanded search for a better bun, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor said yesterday, helps to explain why Mazen Fathi Said was being held on $2 million bail last night.

Said, who operates a small bakery in Greensboro, N.C., has been arrested on charges of burglary, theft of trade secrets, and related offenses stemming from what Montgomery County prosecutors said were five uninvited visits to Norristown's Morabito Baking Co. during a 24-hour period that began June 14 at 4:21 a.m.

According to law-enforcement documents, Morabito cameras videotaped the 30-year-old Said swiping three-ring binders containing 66 recipes used at the 71-year-old family-owned plant, which distributes dinner rolls and other breads under a variety of names in 28 states.

A few minutes later, another camera spied Said stealing a Morabito uniform lab coat, the documents said. Shortly afterward, Said was seen videotaping the Morabito facilities.

And early the next morning, according to the document, Said was back at the bakery, chatting up an employee and offering to fly him down south in exchange for lessons on how to make rolls.

Said, who allegedly later called another Morabito employee with a similar offer, was arrested after Norristown and Greensboro police officers executed a search warrant at his home and business, Famous Pita Bakery in Greensboro, and found the videotapes, uniform lab coat, Morabito ingredient bags, and the recipes.

Those recipes, Castor said, are worth $30 million.

Plant manager Michael A. Morabito III figured that Said likely "wanted to get into the hoagie-roll business because it's a growing business."

The Norristown plant, at 757 Kohn St., presented a challenge to the would-be competitor, Morabito said. "He was upset that we could send our rolls 700 miles down there and still beat him."

Morabito's recipes are valuable, he said, because they involve exclusive products designed over the years to meet the specialized needs of chains such as Wonder Bread, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Dan Marino's restaurants. The firm's biggest seller, Spolettini, a sourdough-based dinner roll, is shipped 95 percent baked so that customers can eat the rolls warm.

In the case of hoagies, a specialized machine called the Winkler String Line enables Morabito bakers to create a blunt-edged roll, which is popular elsewhere in the country. (Philadelphians, however, prefer the tapered roll, Morabito said.)

According to Castor, North Carolina authorities deemed Said a flight risk with possible connections to money-laundering and terrorist organizations.

Said's attorney, Jan Pritchett of Greensboro, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A man who identified himself as Said's brother, Feraz Said, answered the phone at the accused's home last night. Feraz Said called the terrorism allegations "a set-up" that stemmed from prejudice against Arabs.

Feraz Said said his brother, an Israeli Arab from Nazareth, has been in America for more than a decade and in Greensboro for six years. "This is big-time ridiculous," he said. "Charge him the way you charge everybody - equal. Why do you have to involve terrorism? Why do you have to involve money laundering?"

"That 'possible links' could be just the judge trying to justify the 2 million, or it could be something else," said Castor, who said his officers would turn over useful information to federal authorities.

To Morabito, though, the robbery looks like an obvious case of spying on the competition - and not a well-executed caper at that.

One key mistake, according to Morabito: When Said asked one of the Morabito staffers to teach him to make the rolls, he said he wanted to make a "Wonder Hoagie," the company's term for the sandwich roll it made for Wonder Bread. "There's no way you would use that word unless you had my book," Morabito said.

Said first came to the company's attention about a year ago, when Morabito's North Carolina distributor sent word that a local had been talking about competing in the growing hoagie-roll business, Morabito said.

More recently, he said, Said had been trying to buy bakery equipment from a Pottstown firm called Topas Mondial. What he apparently did not realize was that Topas Mondial, like the Morabito plant, is owned by Morabito's father, Michael Morabito Jr.

The Monday after the break-in, Morabito said, Said again called Topas Mondial, asking to buy a $750,000 device crucial to industrial hoagie-roll production. Morabito said only 16 such machines exist in the country, and he suspected Said learned about it from his alleged visit to the plant.

Castor said an extradition hearing is scheduled for July 10 in Greensboro. He said he expected Said to be in custody until then.

[End Times Sentinel]

Update on the case:

 

Suspect in recipe theft waives extradition hearing

The North Carolina man accused of stealing recipes valued at more than $30 million from a Norristown bakery waived his right to an extradition hearing yesterday, agreeing to return to Pennsylvania to stand trial on charges of burglary, theft of trade secrets, and related offenses.

A district court judge in Guilford County, N.C., gave Montgomery County authorities 48 hours to pick up Mazen Fathi Said, 30, who was arrested last week after police said they found recipes, a uniform, and other missing Morabito Baking Co. items at Said's Greensboro, N.C., apartment and at the small pita bakery he operates.

Judge William K. Hunter also declined to reduce Said's $2 million bail. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said the bail was high because investigators had said that Said, an Israeli Arab, was linked to possible money-laundering and terrorist activities. Donald Causey, the senior resident agent at the Greensboro office of the FBI, said he did not know of alleged terrorist ties.

Upon arrival in Montgomery County, Said will be arraigned on the charges in front of a Pennsylvania judge, who will set a new bail based on the local charges.