City contractor imprisoned for fraud

Deepa Bharath

A federal court judge in Kansas City on Wednesday sentenced a

54-year-old man to four months in prison for defrauding the city of

Newport Beach while working on an equipment funding and leasing

contract two years ago.

Darrell G. Jarman of Kansas City was also ordered to pay the city

$127,894 -- money he was supposed to pay a supplier to purchase

equipment for the city, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

Jarman’s company, Municipal Funding Group, was a contracted vendor

for Newport Beach. Jarman admitted in court that he had deposited

$127,894 of the city’s money into his personal bank account in Kansas

City instead.

“[Jarman] was handling contracting and funding of the equipment,”

Shulman said. “The total amount of the contract was about $370,000.

What he embezzled was the first installment of that amount.”

He was to help the city buy a street sweeper, a tractor trailer

and a sewer vactor, Shulman said.

“The city had been doing business with this man for a few years,”

he said. “But this was the first time they encountered a problem of

this kind.”

The case was handled by the FBI, Shulman said.

Jarman was found guilty of one count of mail fraud and sentenced

to four months in prison without parole, plus three years of

supervised release that will include four months of home detention.

City Manager Homer Bludau said the city discovered the problem two

years ago when a manufacturer called the city and said he had not

received payment for a purchase.

The city confronted Jarman, Bludau said.

“He said he would pay restitution, but that didn’t happen,” he

said. “So we decided to press charges.”

Bludau said the city “pursued the case with great vigor.”

“We did not want this person to take advantage of anybody else,”

he said. “We went to great lengths to make sure he was brought to

justice.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.