Fired Disney employee accused of altering restaurant menus for ‘health and safety’ reasons
A Florida man who was fired from Disney this summer faces federal felony charges of allegedly hacking into the company’s computer system and rewriting menu items for restaurants that could be deadly to potential customers.
Michael Scheuer was fired on June 13, 2024, for allegedly removing peanut allergy information from menus, changing fonts and adding profanities, Fox 35 in Orlando reported.
Disney says the firing was "contentious…and not considered to be amicable" while Scheuer says he did nothing wrong and that the company framed him.
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Scheuer was a menu production manager for Disney who was fired for "misconduct," according to the filed complaint, which further stated he was responsible for the creation and distribution of all restaurant menus for the company. His alleged changes did not make it to either print or digital menus, according to the report.
The alleged menu changes by Scheuer — who was called a "threat actor" — threatened public health and safety, the complaint read.
"Namely, the threat actor manipulated the allergen information on menus by adding information to some allergen notifications that indicated certain menu items were safe for individuals with peanut allergies, when in fact they could be deadly to those with peanut allergies," the complaint stated.
In addition to removing important peanut allergy information on the menus, Scheuer allegedly also added profanity and changed prices of certain items on menus.
The complaint states that Scheuer also sent multiple log-in requests that are sometimes known as DDoS attacks, or hacks, that prevented a handful of employees from accessing their accounts and systems within the company.
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An FBI raid at Scheuer’s home on Sept. 23 led to the confiscation of at least four computers, the report stated. Scheuer denied any wrongdoing to the FBI.
"The criminal allegations acknowledge that no one was injured or harmed by any menu alterations. Mr. Scheuer has a disability that impacted his employment at Disney. He had a medical event that resulted in him being suspended," said David Haas, the attorney who spoke on behalf of Scheuer.
"Disney then failed to respond to his inquiries about why he was suspended and then his suspension was inexplicably changed to a termination. Disney refused to provide a response as to why he was fired and made no accommodations for him. He subsequently filed an EEOC complaint. I look forward to vigorously presenting my client’s side of the story."
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The complaint states that none of the changes made it to printed menus or digital menus, but it had cost the company at least $150,000 in damages so far, which was considered a conservative estimate and was still being determined.
Scheuer has been charged with one count of knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information, code, or command to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage without authorization in excess of $5,000.