From a young age, Charles Santich harbored a dream of stepping into his grandfather’s shoes and helming the family mustard business. This aspiration was often recounted on the family’s charming website, painting a picture of a boy set on a singular path.

In 1992, that dream became a reality when Santich took over the reins of the Old Dutch Mustard Company. Under his leadership, the company flourished, achieving remarkable financial success over the ensuing decades.

Thanks to this prosperity, Santich, now 60, crafted a life of luxury, residing in a $1.9 million mansion on Long Island’s North Shore. His driveway boasted a sleek BMW, and his calendar was dotted with vacations.

However, beneath the success of the quaint red-brick mustard factory in Greenville, New Hampshire, lay a troubling secret. This factory, operational since 1972, became a source of environmental concern due to its practices.

Under Santich’s directive, the Victorian-style, five-story facility had been quietly discharging pollutants into the Souhegan River for several years. The Department of Justice reports that acidic brown vinegar water from the factory has been devastating local wildlife since the 1990s, even contributing to mercury contamination in the town’s fish population.

Acidic brown vinegar water trickling from the factory to the stream has been wiping out wildlife since the 1990s, and it even contributed to mercury contamination in fish in the picturesque town, according to the Department of Justice. 

The scandal suddenly sullied generations of hard work, and Santich was found guilty of knowingly polluting the river for more than a quarter century this year. 

He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars on Friday, bringing the picture-perfect life he built to come crashing down. 

The Facebook page belonging to his wife, Aimee Santich, 60, who works as the Vice President of the mustard company, displays their ritzy vacations and family life. The photograph above from the account shows Charles Santich with his wife and daughter posing beside a Gucci sign

Between visits to the factory, Santich, 60, has been living an enviable life with his wife in a $1.9 million mansion (pictured) sandwiched between a golf course and a country club in Long Island, New York, while his company continued to rake in the cash

There was a hidden dark side to the simple red-brick mustard factory which has been operating in Greenville, New Hampshire , since 1942. (Pictured: An aerial shot of Greenville)

The mustard tycoon was also slapped with a year of supervised release and ordered to personally pay a $250,000 fine, while his company was billed $1.5million. 

It came after he pleaded guilty in February to knowingly discharging a pollutant without a permit in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Santich had hatched a plan to elude monitoring of his company’s impact on the river, by secretly pumping excess wastewater into it to save on shipping costs. 

In May 2017, he even hired an excavation company to extend an underground pipe to the top of a hill several hundred feet behind the factory. 

The company also constructed a drainage ditch to divert water from the pipe into the river. 

Santich carefully erased any trace of a paper trail by asking the owner of the excavation firm to remove any references to the illegal pipe and drainage ditch in documents shared between their companies.   

During the six years that followed, Santich told factory employees to ‘repeatedly pump his acidic wastewater and stormwater through the underground pipe,’ according to the DoJ. 

His cowed employees said he threatened to fire them if they did not assist in the crime. 

The unassuming Victorian-style five-story facility (pictured) has been quietly pumping pollutants into the beautiful Souhegan River for the last several years – all on Santich’s orders

Ever since he was a boy, Charles Santich dreamed of taking over his grandfather’s successful mustard business, according to the family’s homespun website. He is pictured above as a child on the Old Dutch Mustard Company factory site in Greenville, New Hampshire, in 1973 

Santich posed outside a Gucci store with her husband and their daughter in one photograph, while other images like the one above show them enjoying a ski holiday in Vail, Colorado

At Santich’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said his factory has been wiping out wildlife in the area since the ’90s, and his personal orders had ‘continued to pollute the river and prevent its recovery,’ per the DoJ. 

A toxicologist even told his sentencing hearing that his illegal activities had ‘likely contributed to the conditions’ that resulted in people being sold mercury-contaminated fish. 

Santich pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal that would avoid the case going to trial. He will now spend the next year and a half behind bars in a federal prison – a far cry from the life of luxury he had grown accustomed to. 

His wife, Aimee Santich, 60, also worked as the Vice President of Finance and Planning at the mustard company, according to her LinkedIn page. 

She has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Her Facebook page displays the couple’s ritzy vacations and family life. 

Aimee posed outside a Gucci store with her husband and their 22-year-old daughter in one photograph, while others show them enjoying a ski holiday in Vail, Colorado. 

Aimee also shared a photo of herself enjoying a vacation in glitzy Palm Beach.  

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Santich family for comment. 

US Attorney Erin Creegan condemned the condiment tsar’s conduct in a statement released after his sentencing. 

Pungent brown vinegar water trickling from the factory to the stream has been wiping out wildlife in the Souhegan River (pictured) since the 1990s, and it even contributed to mercury fish consumption among residents of the picturesque town, according to the DoJ

Charles Santich oversaw the mustard factory while his wife Aimee worked as Vice President 

‘Throughout years of repeated civil and administrative attempts to encourage Santich and his company to follow the law, Santich lied to state and federal authorities and even purposefully built the illegal infrastructure needed to pump his manufacturing waste into New Hampshire’s waterways, pushing his employees to help him violate the law,’ Creegan said. 

‘New Hampshire is the best place in the country in which to start and run a business. 

‘State and federal agencies tried over and over to help Santich and his company end the pollution that left waterways with fewer fish, and impacted the recreationalists and homeowners who use the Souhegan River. 

‘As the result of this years-long scheme of intentional misconduct and deceit, a criminal sanction is necessary to protect the public.’ 

A spokesperson for the Old Dutch Mustard Company told the Daily Mail it employs more than 60 people and will be continuing with operations. 

Speaking about Santich’s sentencing, they said in a statement: ‘While we are disappointed by today’s outcome, the Company remains steadfast in its commitment to continued compliance, environmental responsibility and to serving the Greenville community that has been our home for generations.’

The mustard company was established in Brooklyn by Santich’s Yugoslavian grandfather Karlo Sancer-Santich in 1941, and it began operating at the Greenville facility in 1972.