Robbery staged for scheme?

Covelli concessionaire faces embezzlement charge

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The former general manager of the Covelli Centre’s food and drink vendor is in hot water, charged with embezzling money from the company for more than two years.

But the felony theft count is not Mark P. Daigle’s only legal problem.

Police are also investigating whether Daigle, 38, of Steeplechase Drive in Canfield, and a former local official for the vendor — formerly known as Boston Culinary, and now Centerplate after the latter purchased it — staged a Jan. 26 aggravated robbery to cover up the embezzlement.

A warrant is out for the arrest of Centerplate’s former office manager Kathy Lewis, 40, of Karl Street in Youngstown, charging her with theft, according to the Youngstown clerk of court’s office.

Lewis was the supposed victim in the robbery in which about $90,000 was stolen at the arena about 9:15 a.m. Jan. 26.

At the time of the robbery, police and Covelli Centre officials said they suspected the robbery was an “inside job.”

“I’m certainly not shocked; when it went down I was very suspicious,” said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.

Also, officials with the city and the center’s management company are in discussions with Centerplate to cut ties or to amend the contract to allow other vendors to sell food and drinks at the facility.

Daigle was arraigned Friday in Youngstown Municipal Court on the felony theft count. He is free on $10,000 bond with a preliminary hearing scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Centerplate has fired Daigle and Lewis, according to police.

Police Capt. Rod Foley, the chief of detectives, didn’t respond to several requests this week by The Vindicator to discuss the case.

Robert Paoletti, Centerplate’s vice president of internal audit, referred comment to Bob Pascal, the company’s corporate vice president of marketing and sales. Pascal couldn’t be reached Friday. Centerplate bought Boston Culinary in January.

A written statement Friday from Foley’s office states that during the course of the investigation into the robbery, detectives uncovered information about an embezzlement scheme.

Centerplate, based in Stamford, Conn., was notified of the embezzlement and conducted an audit. That led to the discovery that a “sizeable amount” of cash from the business was embezzled between Dec. 7, 2007, and March 2010, according to Foley’s written statement.

About $30,000 was embezzled, and police are investigating whether about $90,000 was taken during the robbery staged to cover up the embezzlement, according to those familiar with the investigation.

“The case is still being investigated with the possibility of additional charges to be filed at a later date,” according to Foley’s statement.

Ryan said he informed Daigle in September 2009 that the center’s management company was concerned about Boston Culinary’s financial records and intended to hire an auditing firm to check those figures.

Mayor Jay Williams said he is “very concerned” about the embezzlement and robbery at the city-owned facility.

Williams and Ryan say discussions are ongoing with Centerplate about the city’s 10-year contract, signed when the center opened in October 2005.

Those talks include ending the deal, which Boston Culinary had refused to do, or amending it to allow other vendors to handle food and beverage sales at the center.

For years, the city administration and city council have expressed concerns about the exclusivity of the contract and that the prices charged for food and drinks were too high.

“We’ve also had concerns about the effectiveness of their operations,” Williams said.

The contract calls for the city and the center to receive 31 percent of annual gross sales on concessions.

Centerplate/Boston Culinary averages about $800,000 to $1 million in concession sales annually, Ryan said. That translates to about $248,000 to $310,000 a year for the city.

When Youngstown signed the deal with Boston Culinary, International Coliseums Co., which managed the center for its first two years, and city Finance Director David Bozanich estimated the food-and-beverage deal would bring in about $2.22 million in profits to the city and the facility, according to an Oct. 8, 2005, Vindicator article.