Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy - Eamon Javers [69]
The general theme for the response should be that Mars will do anything to stop Nestlé Magic. The reason is that Mars does not have a product that it can put on store shelves this year; thus, pending entry of its own product on the American market, Mars cannot afford for Magic to be sold unabated. In other words, this matter involves corporate greed and market share, not child safety.2
Kroll also noted that Nestlé should underscore the political connection: Mars was using a “cadre of Democratic Party operatives” in Washington to make its case.
But it was too late. The FDA had granted a damning interview to the New York Times about Nestlé Magic, including one comment that made it all but impossible for the Nestlé company to continue to market the product: “This product is illegal under our act,” William Hubbard, the associate commissioner for policy of the FDA, declared to the Times reporter.3 That was the end. Nestlé surrendered. In a defensive-sounding press release issued on October 1, the company said, “Nestlé Magic meets all Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) safety standards; however, due to an unresolved technical, legal question related to food/toy combination products, Nestlé has agreed to voluntarily withdraw the product.” Frank Arthofer, president of Nestlé’s Confections Division, conceded that the company faced “an unfavorable environment to market the product.”4
Losing a skirmish in the ongoing battle with Mars was a blow to Nestlé’s pride—as well as its bottom line. Nestlé had put enormous resources and effort into Magic. Now all this input had vanished. Hank Whetstone, who ran the company in Florida that was churning out the candies, got the word to shut down the assembly line on the same day the Nestlé press release went out. He walked over to his brand-new building, told the 125 workers that they were fired, and turned off the main power switch for the machines. “It made me so sick,” he says.
Whetstone says that Nestlé officials told him they’d lost $30 million on Magic. The hole in their balance sheet was a far cry from the dreams of billions that had nourished the Magic project from the outset. Soon, the manufacturer in Florida would find himself in a protracted legal battle with Nestlé over who had to pay the costs of the new manufacturing facility, now sitting idle. Nestlé’s hired spies would find their way to his facility, too, this time eager to learn whether Nestlé’s former subcontractor was using the factory that Nestlé had built to produce candy for the enemy: Mars.
The “chocolate war” was about to see a new offensive. Nestlé continued to pour in resources. It needed better intelligence to unravel what had happened in the defeat of Magic. Nestlé wanted to know the players, the techniques, and the time line of the effort. After all, Nestlé suspected that other battles were looming.
Now Nestlé turned to Beckett Brown, which set up elaborate surveillance on a small consulting firm, the Hawthorn Group in Alexandria, Virginia. This firm is almost entirely unknown outside public relations circles. But it has a close association with Mars, and James Kiss, the chairman of Hawthorn’s advisory board, is an elder statesman of the public relations business. He has earned the rare privilege of being allowed to cite his work for the highly secretive Mars in his marketing material.
Beckett Brown decided to target Richard Swigart, a consultant with Hawthorn who seemed to be deeply involved in its strategic work for Mars. Could Swigart have been Deep Chocolate? Beckett Brown knew that Swigart was an important figure: when the former Secret Service men at Beckett Brown drew up an organization chart of the Mars team, Swigart was shown working closely with Edward Stegemann, the general counsel of Mars, who was said to be one of the few close personal friends of the reclusive Mars brothers.
Finding Swigart’s home address—3119 Circle Hill Road in Alexandria—was easy. With that information, Beckett Brown found his home phone number. And it wasn’t much harder to find out who Swigart