SmashCity owner charged with food hall theft has a pattern of stealing from restaurants

SmashCity owner Paul Moody, who is charged with stealing more than $250,000 from Marble City Market during his time as manager, previously pled guilty to stealing on a smaller scale from other restaurants that employed him.

Court records show Moody was working at (or had just been fired from) Hurricane Grill & Wings on Lovell Road when the restaurant received a phone call from a check-cashing business in 2015.

Moody had cashed three checks that were in the restaurant's name for a total of $3,200, records show. Moody was ordered to pay restitutions after pleading guilty to theft.

Hurricane Grill & Wings no longer has a Knoxville location.

Three years prior, Moody was managing a Cracker Barrel in Moody, Alabama, when the store's loss prevention manager confronted him about three missing deposits totaling $6,661.03, court records show. From the manager's account, Moody said he took the money to pay for his father's funeral but planned to pay it back upon receiving insurance money from his dad's death.

Moody had multiple meetings scheduled with the Cracker Barrel manager before law enforcement got involved, but those meetings never happened "due to Mr. Moody saying that he did not have the money," according to records. Moody later said he sent a check in the amount of the deposits, but Cracker Barrel never received it.

Moody pled guilty in the Cracker Barrel case in 2013 to first-degree theft of property and was ordered to pay restitution and serve three years of unsupervised probation.

Moody also was found guilty of misdemeanor theft for purchasing four season tickets for Tennessee athletics using a stolen credit card number in 2007 (the court documents don't specify which sport).

The cardholder said they did not know Moody, according to court documents, and the total value of the purchase was $2,731.25. Moody was ordered to pay that money back and was placed on supervised probation until he did.

Knox News briefly spoke to Moody the afternoon of July 29, but he declined to comment at length, saying only that all his past incidents have been "resolved."

More details on SmashCity's time at Marble City Market

Knox News was first to report July 15 that Paul Moody and his wife, Ashley Moody, have been charged with theft of greater than $250,000 after Marble City Market co-owner Doug White told police they embezzled more than $190,000 from the food hall.

An incident report filed with the Knoxville Police Department asserts Paul Moody:

• Stole $876 in cash and wrote a check to SmashCity for $20,000 without White's authorization
• Made "several deposits" totaling $36,595.94 to his own account instead of RSQ Management's account
• Made two transfers to his own account from RSQ Management in January 2023 for a total of $30,999.76

A civil case against the Moodys, which is on hold pending the outcome of their criminal charges, includes more assertions about how the Moodys handled money that was coming into the food hall.

For example, food hall owner RSQ Management asserts at least $47,444.23 in proceeds from SmashCity's time as a food hall vendor was diverted in June 2023 to an account held by at least one of the Moodys or their affiliated businesses.

The following month, that same account received at least $1,885.64 from transactions made at Seoul Brothers, one of the vendors the Moodys were overseeing as managers.

The Moodys were terminated as managers July 13, 2023, the same day RSQ says Paul Moody issued a $20,000 check from the bar, which was then deposited in that same account.

RSQ says at least $120,410.75 has been diverted to the account but believes there could be more since the Moodys maintained access to the food hall and bar accounts after they were terminated.

On Aug. 17, 2023, RSQ closed the food hall account to "prevent further embezzlement of plaintiff's assets," according to documents.

The civil case also asserts the Moodys paid themselves a management fee in weekly intervals instead of monthly intervals, used food hall money to pay employees not affiliated with the food hall and refused to grant access to business records when the food hall was trying to transition to new management.

The theft charge is a Class A felony in Tennessee. Ashley and Paul Moody also are charged with violating the Tennessee Computer Act. They have a court date set for Oct. 8.

Around the time the Moodys were departing Marble City Market as managers, they also announced their plans to pull SmashCity from the food hall as a vendor. The business moved to the former OliBea location at 211 S. Central St., where it continues to operate.

Ryan Wilusz is the growth and development editor. Phone 865-317-5138. Email ryan.wilusz@knoxnews.com. Instagram @knoxscruff.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: SmashCity owner charged with food hall theft has a pattern of stealing from restaurants