Meriden Man Admits To Wire Fraud: Feds

MERIDEN, CT — A Meriden man faces up to 20 years in prison for defrauding manufacturing companies, according to authorities. Digby Kerr, 50, of Meriden waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty this week in federal court to one count of wire fraud, U.S. States Attorney for Connecticut John H. Durham announced in a press release.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Kerr owned and operated Transportation Cost Management, LLC (“TCM”), which was in the business of brokering shipping contracts between manufacturers and trucking companies. As part of its business, TCM would receive shipping invoices from trucking companies, process the invoices, and forward the billing information to the manufacturers

The manufacturers would transmit the payment funds to TCM for remittal to the trucking companies. TCM would then remit payment to the trucking companies and send confirmation reports to the manufacturers indicating that payment had been made to the trucking companies. The manufactures compensated TCM for providing this service.

“In pleading guilty, Kerr admitted that, between approximately December 2016 and April 2017, he and TCM failed to remit $603,489.30 in payment funds that TCM received from four manufacturers to the trucking companies that transported goods for those victim manufacturers,” according to a press release from the U.S. States Attorney’s Office. “TCM, at Kerr’s direction, e-mailed confirmation reports to the victim manufacturers that falsely represented that the manufacturers’ payments had been properly forwarded to the trucking companies.”

Wire fraud carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. Kerr was released on a $100,000 bond pending sentencing, which has been scheduled for June 18.

Image via Shutterstock