Fired Disney employee allegedly manipulated menus, including false allergen info: Feds

A terminated Walt Disney World employee is accused of manipulating the theme park's restaurant's menus, including adding profanity, changing prices and inputting false allergen information that could have been "deadly to those with peanut allergies," according to federal authorities.

Michael Scheuer, who served as a "menu production manager" for Walt Disney World before his June 13 firing, is being charged with fraud activity connected with computers, Florida federal court records show.

Scheuer was terminated from the theme park in Florida for "misconduct," according to a federal complaint filed in the Middle District of Florida. Disney, which the complaint calls "Company A," told authorities that the firing was contentious and was not considered to be "amicable."

As part of Scheuer's duties, he was responsible for creating and publishing menus for the entire restaurant portfolio of Disney, the complaint reads. He would do this by utilizing Disney's secure file transfer protocol servers, which is a secure method for transferring files between computers, the document continued.

"Only employees in Scheuer's position or a position similar to Scheuer would have the accesses and knowledge to carry out the attacks described below in the manner in which they were carried out," according to the complaint.

Paste BN contacted Disney on Wednesday but did not immediately receive a response.

'Scheuer has a disability that impacted his employment at Disney'

David Haas, Scheuer's attorney, shared a statement with Paste BN saying, "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."

Haas' statement continued to explain that Scheuer had a "medical event that resulted in him being suspended." Following the event, "Disney then failed to respond to his inquiries about why he was suspended, and his suspension was inexplicably changed to termination," Haas said.

"Disney refused to provide a response as to why he was fired and made no accommodations for him," according to the statement. "He subsequently filed an EEOC complaint. I look forward to vigorously presenting my client’s side of the story.”

Scheuer has "struggled with mental health issues since his childhood" and was "actively seeing a psychiatrist for the past three years," his motion for pretrial release reads.

How did Michael Scheuer allegedly manipulate Disney's menu?

Over three months, Disney was a victim of "multiple computer intrusions into servers" associated with the menu program Scheuer utilized, according to the charging document. The company became aware of the intrusions on July 9, the court filing continued.

Scheuer used his "personal computer to conduct the attacks," the complaint reads. He also used mobile devices to carry out his crimes, according to the court document, which calls them "sophisticated in nature."

In addition to manipulating the menus, Scheuer attempted to disable certain accounts by launching denial-of-service attacks against them, according to the complaint.

How did Michael Scheuer get caught?

The FBI came to search Scheuer's home on Sept. 23, the complaint reads. When agents arrived, Scheuer said Disney was attempting to "frame him because they were worried about him and the conditions under which he was terminated."

Scheuer told the agents that "he was surprised to see the FBI," but "he would not have been surprised if the sheriff's office came to visit him to ask him to cease and desist with sending emails that could possibly be perceived as threatening," according to the complaint.

The terminated employee did admit to using his personal Google Chrome profile to conduct activities related to Disney while he was employed there, the charging document reads. He could not definitively say if he accessed the company's systems after his firing because he may have accessed them to get paystubs and other financial information, the court filing continued.

Four personal computers were seized from Scheuer's home and all of them contained a virtual private network (VPN) that was used in one or more of the cyber incidents, according to the complaint.

Scheuer remains in federal custody awaiting his motion hearing for bond on Nov. 5, court records show.