Contractor Gets Jail Bilking LAUSD For Millions

LOS ANGELES, CA — A former contractor was sentenced Tuesday to 50 days in jail and three years probation for bilking the Los Angeles Unified School District out of millions of dollars by submitting false invoices for irrigation clocks.

Karl Hauser, 74, also paid $3.1 million in restitution, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Hauser -- who pleaded no contest in February to one count of embezzlement -- was the president of Plumbing and Industrial Supply Inc., a company that was awarded numerous LAUSD contracts, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Co-defendant John Paul Chapman, 76, who was the office manager at the company's branch in Vernon, also pleaded no contest to a felony embezzlement charge. Chapman was sentenced Feb. 28 to 400 hours of community service, five years formal probation and ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to the school district.

Charges against the company -- which paid $20,000 in restitution -- were dismissed.

Prosecutors said more than 200 fake company invoices were submitted for irrigation clocks between 2002 and 2006.

An LAUSD employee, who has since died, was compensated for his role in the scheme by having unlimited use of the company's credit card and having items purchased on his behalf for his personal businesses, prosecutors said.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock