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March 27, 2018

Meriden man found guilty in $600K transport fraud

By GREGORY SEAY

A Meriden truck-transport broker pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding more than $600,000 from Connecticut manufacturers who relied on his services to ship their goods, authorities say.

Digby Kerr, 50, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty in New Haven federal court to one count of wire fraud, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office said.

According to the FBI and prosecutors, Kerr owned and ran Transportation Cost Management, LLC, which brokered shipping contracts between manufacturers and trucking companies.

TCM would get shipping invoices from trucking companies, process them, and forward the billing information to the manufacturers, who would then send funds to TCM to pay the trucking companies, authorities said. TCM would then send confirmation reports to the manufacturers indicating that payment had been made to the shippers. TCM drew fees for this service.

But from around December 2016 and April 2017, Kerr admitted that he and TCM failed to remit more than $603,400 in payment funds that TCM received from four manufacturers to the trucking companies that transported goods for those victim producers.

Kerr also arranged for e-mailed confirmation reports to the victims, indicating their payments had been forwarded to the trucking companies.

Kerr, who is free on a $100,000 bond, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced June 18.

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