Law360 (July 16, 2026, 9:13 PM EDT) — Edible Arrangements’ former chief operating officer and his company must pay nearly $14 million after defaulting in a case that accused him of regularly stealing from the fruit-basket company by intercepting vendor rebate checks and diverting millions of dollars in media-contract payments, a Georgia federal judge said Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. entered default judgment in favor of Edible Arrangements against its former chief operating officer and president, Cheikh Mboup, and his company, E.A. International LLC, which was accused of orchestrating a kickback scheme in which Mboup came away with nearly $3 million in funds meant to go to Edible Arrangements.

“The court awards plaintiff compensatory damages in the amount of $3,805,758.60,” the order said. “This amount represents the funds defendant Mboup misappropriated from plaintiff through two fraudulent schemes. In the first scheme … Mr. Mboup directed that all vendors must submit rebates to Edible by paper check. Mr. Mboup then took the physical checks and deposited them into a BBVA/PNC Bank account he controlled in the name of EAI, the entity that Mr. Mboup created and named so that it would be confusingly similar to Edible Arrangements.”

Judge Thrash’s order referenced a second scheme in which Mboup directed third-party Active Media Services Inc.’s payments, meant for Edible Arrangements, to instead go to EAI, without authorization.

Judge Thrash also awarded $2,550,954.22 in attorney fees to Edible Arrangements, plus $7,611,517.20 in punitive damages.

“Plaintiff has established that defendants acted with specific intent to cause harm, as the defendants specifically intended to deprive plaintiff of over $3 million in payments owed to plaintiff, which Mr. Mboup and EAI appropriated for themselves through the vendor rebate scheme and the Active Media scheme,” the judge wrote.

The judge continued: “The tortious acts were repeated and occurred over a period of years, which enhances the egregiousness of the conduct and supports the award of punitive damages.”

Edible Arrangements first sued Mboup in 2023. According to the complaint, Mboup served as president and COO from June 2019 until September 2022. Under the terms of his employment, Mboup could act as Edible Arrangements’ broker in deals with vendors. However, in November 2020, he negotiated and signed a media-purchasing contract with Active Media Services Inc., which does business as Active International, “purportedly on behalf of Edible,” the plaintiff alleged.

Under the deal, Active International was to purchase advertising for Edible Arrangements, the suit said. In reality, Mboup used the deal to divert funds to himself and Active International used this to obtain a multimillion-dollar media commitment from Edible, the plaintiff said.

Notably, Edible Arrangements alleged the contract referred to an entity called “Edible Arrangements International Inc.,” which doesn’t actually exist. The company went by this name until 2012, but is no longer used or an active entity, the plaintiff said. Mboup knew he didn’t have the authority to sign a contract on behalf of Edible Arrangements Inc. and went beyond the authority of Edible Arrangements LLC, the company added.

Edible Arrangements also accused Mboup of misappropriating the plaintiff’s vendor rebate checks that were made payable to Edible Arrangements or its affiliates.

Edible Arrangements said Mboup concealed his scheme for years, in part, by forming EAI. Mboup hid the company from the plaintiff’s executive officers, legal team and other corporate decision-makers, the suit said. In addition to Mboup’s misconduct, Edible Arrangements alleged that Active International eventually became a willing contributor to the purported fraud.

Initially, the media company represented that the upfront and reconciliation payments were intended for Edible Arrangements. But it repeatedly and exclusively requested wire instructions directly from Mboup, the company said. That ensured that the scheme remained in their control and prevented Edible Arrangements from obtaining material information that would have uncovered it, according to the complaint.

Active International should’ve known — or did know — that Mboup wasn’t acting with Edible Arrangements’ authority, it said.

“Ultimately, this relationship between defendants is structured like a typical kickback scheme, where Active Media benefitted from Edible’s advertising business, while it was paying Mboup to facilitate the relationship,” Edible Arrangements said. “All the while, Mboup was enriching himself, through defendant EA International LLC, at the expense of Edible.”

Mboup countersued Edible Arrangements, asserting claims for breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing and tortious interference in April 2023. Mboup argued Edible Arrangements allowed him to continue pursuing other business ventures — even those that competed with Edible Arrangements or took opportunities from it — in a bid to woo him back to the company as its COO in 2019.

Mboup had previously worked for Edible Arrangements from 2015 to 2018 and rejoined that year. Mboup also said that Edible Arrangements’ CEO, Tariq Farid, was aware of EAI, and claimed that Farid helped create its name, which stood for “Engaged Advertising,” and even saw $150,000 from its first transaction with Active International.

In addition, Mboup accused Edible Arrangements of violating his employment contract by filing its suit, “accusing a long-time executive of various illegal activities without any basis” and trying to recover money he legitimately derived from his business.

In September 2023, Judge Thrash said Edible Arrangements had to face two of Mboup’s three counterclaims.

Earlier this year, Judge Thrash struck Mboup’s answer as a sanction for bad faith discovery conduct, finding he and his company hid key evidence about millions in vendor checks deposited into a personal account. Judge Thrash also dismissed Mboup’s counterclaims, finding he failed to show recoverable damages from Edible Arrangements’ lawsuit.

On April 17, Edible Arrangements filed its motion for default judgment, which Mboup opposed the following month.

“The legal sufficiency of Edible’s claims regarding defendants’ liability are undermined by the court’s finding of a genuine issue of material fact regarding the scope of the employment agreement between Mboup and Edible, and whether the scope of the employment agreement allowed Mboup to compensate himself through Edible’s vendor checks and Active media contracts,” Mboup’s opposition said.

Furthermore, Mboup can’t be held liable for fiduciary duty breaches owed to Edible Arrangements for actions that were allowed under his employment agreement, the opposition said.

“We are pleased that the court entered this judgment against defendants, holding them accountable for their schemes that diverted millions of dollars from Edible to themselves,” Jason Alloy, an attorney for Edible Arrangements, said in an email to Law360 Thursday. “The court’s award, including substantial punitive damages, sends a clear message that this kind of deliberate fraud carries real consequences.”

Representatives for Mboup and EAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Edible Arrangements is represented by Jason S. Alloy, Matthew T. Parrish, Catherine C. Sullivan and Ryan H. Read of Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC.

Mboup and EAI are represented by Kevin L. Ward, Andrea Pawlak and Christopher J. Williams of Schulten Ward Turner & Weiss LLP and Michael Cavendish of Cavendish Partners PA.

The case is Edible Arrangements LLC v. Cheikh Mboup, case number 1:23-cv-01158, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.