Third former employee to plead guilty in $1.9 million Outback swindle

TAMPA — The third of three former employees has agreed to plead guilty to stealing $1.9 million from the company that owns the Outback Steakhouse restaurant chain.

Until February, Mark T. Watson was the treasury department supervisor for OSI Restaurant Partners, the parent company of the Outback chain, plus Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine.

In that job, Watson handled wire transfers for the company. Federal prosecutors charge that he and two colleagues, Owen R. Galvin and Jeremy David Schweikert, submitted false invoices and wired money to shell companies they created.

Watson and Galvin made 13 fraudulent wire transfers from July 2009 to March, authorities say. Schweikert, an analyst in OSI's treasury department, participated in five of the 13 phony wire transfers.

All three men agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud. Each faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced.