A former Disney employee who sabotaged the company’s internal menu system — inserting profanity and dangerously altering allergen information — has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Michael Scheuer, 41, a father of three, learned his fate this week after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. The Florida judge sentenced him to a total of 36 months behind bars, stemming from two counts of fraud: one involving computer systems and another involving identification documents.
Scheuer had worked as a “menu production manager” for Disney until his termination in June. Believing he was fired unfairly, he retaliated by hacking into Disney’s internal network and tampering with restaurant menus across the parks.
Among the changes Scheuer made, prosecutors say he inserted profanity into menu items — changing “cheesy grits” to “cheesy s***s” and “golden tipped asam” to “golden tipped ass.” Far more seriously, Scheuer also manipulated allergen information, falsely indicating that some dishes were safe for individuals with severe peanut allergies, when in fact they could have been deadly.
According to court filings, Scheuer systematically deleted allergen warnings for peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish, and in some cases replaced those warnings with false labels like “milk” instead. He also locked employees out of their accounts, altered font settings, and tampered with menu prices across the system.
Earlier this year, Scheuer pleaded guilty to both charges. He received a 12-month sentence for computer fraud and 24 months for identity document fraud, with the sentences to be served consecutively. Following his prison term, he will face three years of supervised release for the first count and one year for the second — those supervision periods will run concurrently.
Scheuer was also ordered to pay $687,786 in restitution to Disney to cover the damages caused by his actions.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Scheuer’s attorney, David Haas, said:
“Mr. Scheuer remains remorseful and apologetic to the victims. We are grateful that the Judge heard all of our arguments and mitigation, resulting in a sentence that was half of what the Government originally sought.”
