CORSICANA, Texas — Texas-born actress Jennifer Garner is set to star in a movie about a couple who embezzled nearly $17 million from the Collin Street Bakery based in Corsicana, according to a new report.
The movie, entitled Fruitcake, according to Deadline, will feature Garner as Kay Jenkins and Paul Walter Hauser as Kay's husband, Sandy Jenkins, a seemingly upstanding middle-class couple, who achieved the American dream after Sandy used his job as an accountant to embezzle $17 million from Collin Street Bakery, the world-famous fruitcake company based in Corsicana.
In September 2015, Sandy was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Kay was given five years probation and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. Deadline had previously reported in 2020 that Will Ferrell and Laura Dern were set to portray the Texas couple, but the project "has undergone a makeover," according to Deadline's new report released earlier this month.
The movie is being directed by Max Winkler, known for films like Flower and Jungleland.
"The saga of the Collin Street Bakery’s fruitcake factory, based on Katy Vine’s brilliant article, remains our white whale. I’m thrilled and honored to get to bring it all to the screen with this wonderful team we have assembled.,” Winkler told Deadline.
A timetable for the movie's release has not yet been reported.
Collin Street Bakery's true-crime embezzlement story
According to federal authorities, Sandy Jenkins caused Collin Street Bakery checks to be written to his personal creditors and then manipulated Collin Street Bakery's computerized accounting system to show that the checks had been voided.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for Texas' Northern District, the prosecution said the Jenkins took 223 trips on private jets from 2004 until the embezzlement was discovered in 2013 at a total cost exceeding $3.3 million. Additionally, the government found the Jenkins spent more than $11 million on an American Express black card alone — which comes out to roughly $98,000 per month over the course of the scheme — and $1.2 million at the Neiman Marcus store in Dallas' Northpark Center.
The government also showed the Jenkins purchased 38 vehicles in that same time period, including many luxury models.
"According to evidence proffered at sentencing, Sandy Jenkins and Kay Jenkins purchased a new automobile every time they needed an oil change," a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Seized assets and cash totaling nearly $4 million were turned over to Collin Street Bakery to be sold off.
Sandy Jenkins emotionally addressed the bakery's staff and owners in the courtroom, saying "I betrayed you. I'm terribly sorry."
His attorney, Brett Stalcup, called the case "crazy" but said his client was apologetic, and got into a situation where he couldn't stop. More than a dozen bakery employees, along with members of the controlling McNutt family, attended the hearing.
Collin Street Bakery is known for its fruitcakes and cookies, which it ships around the world.
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