The former executive of the United States operator of the Juan Valdez cafe, Rosita Joseph, was recently accused of theft, since it is alleged that she stole more than 900,000 dollars from the company, in order to inflate her salary, buy luxury items on Amazon and go on expensive vacations.
This was reported by the Manhattan district attorney, who said that the former chief operating officer of NFCGC Investments Inc., 51, allegedly made multiple unauthorized payroll deposits, ultimately totaling more than $580,000, in addition to another series of transfers totaling more than $180,000.
For its part, Archyde.com published that Rosita Joseph, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, also was accused of billing more than 115,000 dollars to a corporate card of the American Express franchise, justifying trips for the former official and other people. The destinations paid for by this transaction included Orlando, Florida, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
At e-commerce giant Amazon, Joseph spent more than $86,000 on jewelry and diamonds, as well as various accessories from well-known designer brands like Gucci.
According to the prosecutors handling the case, they ensured that the former director was fired from the company in May 2018, following she refused internal requests to justify the expenses. In this sense, she always refused to support them.
“We will not allow unscrupulous employees to use their companies as a personal piggy bank.”, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
The 51-year-old woman was charged with grand theft in the second degree, that is, she might pay a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. However, she was granted supervised release and therefore she must hand over her passport to the authorities, to prevent her from leaving the country.
At the moment, since the defense of the accused, no official communication has been presented on this case.
Juan Valdez expands in the Middle East
With the aim of continuing the growth of the brand internationally, the Juan Valdez stores officially opened their doors in Turkey and Qatar. The operation in these markets will be possible for the franchisees Honest Holding in Turkey and Ali Bin Ali Holding in Qatar.
These two stores, located in the Mena region (Middle East and North Africa), have the support and experience of some Colombian bariculturists of the brand, who were part of the opening process and will be contributing their knowledge to deliver the best experience to local consumers.
“We are happy to bring Juan Valdez 100% Colombian premium coffee to Turkey. We have a very ambitious expansion plan for the region and we believe that our omnichannel strategy will be decisive to increase the positioning of the brand in the country”, assured the franchisee Cengiz Deveci of Honest Holding.
The Juan Valdez stores in Qatar and Turkey, located in Doha and Istanbul, respectively, will be decisive for the development of the company’s international expansion strategystrengthening the presence of the brand of Colombian coffee growers in the Middle East.
The Juan Valdez brand was created 20 years ago by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, a non-profit organization that represents more than 540 thousand coffee producing families in the country.
The brand has expanded to several countries around the world such as Turkey, the Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, Qatar, Russia, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay, among others.
