FBI RAIDS STOP & SHOP MAIN OFFICE, DATA CENTER

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

BOSTON -- Federal Bureau of Investigation agents recently raided the corporate headquarters of Stop & Shop Cos. here and a computer data center in nearby Braintree in what some local observers see as an offshoot of an ongoing investigation of the New England food brokerage industry.

About 60 FBI agents were involved in the search. Local observers said the agents removed more than 200 boxes of documents, many reportedly from the chain's accounting and pricing departments.

"The company has cooperated fully with the FBI's investigation and will continue to do so," a Stop & Shop official said.

Although all employees were asked to leave the buildings, or were not allowed to enter, once the search had begun, the FBI did allow members of Stop & Shop's board of directors to hold their scheduled meeting at corporate headquarters while the search was under way.

At that meeting, held on Jan. 27, the board followed through on a preplanned management change and elected Robert G.

Tobin as chairman to succeed Lewis J. Schaeneman Jr.

Tobin, 57, will retain the title of president, which he has held since 1989, and chief executive officer, which he was given last May.

Schaeneman will remain a Stop & Shop director and will serve as chairman of the board's executive committee. In addition, he will work on a part-time basis on the chain's new-store development process.

Stop & Shop operates 97 stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.

It is the only chain that has been publicly connected with the food broker investigation, which began in 1993.

That investigation -- being conducted by the FBI and the Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston -- is focusing on the handling of incentive funds paid by manufacturers through brokers to retailers for use in in-store displays, couponing or other promotional activities.

As reported, four Stop & Shop executives were fired by the company last February for allegedly accepting gifts or mishandling promotional funds from a local food broker who was indicted by the U.S. Attorney. Only two of those executives were part of the FBI probe.

Local sources said discussions with some of those executives may have resulted in the Jan. 27 FBI raid on Stop & Shop.

William McMullin, a spokesman for the FBI's Boston office, told SN he did not know what the bureau was searching for, since the warrants authorizing the raid were sealed. A listing of what was sought, and what was actually seized, is likely to become public when the FBI returns to court to present what it found, McMullin said.