MERIDEN — The owner of a city transportation broker firm pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to defrauding manufacturing companies of more than $600,000 over several months.

Digby Kerr, 50, of Meriden, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of wire fraud. He is free on $100,000 bond and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18.

Kerr owned and operated Transportation Cost Management, which brokered shipping contracts between manufacturers and trucking companies. TCM would receive shipping invoices from trucking companies and process the invoice before forwarding billing information to manufacturers, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

Manufacturers would transmit payments to TCM for remittal to the trucking companies, the statement said. TCM would then remit payment to the trucking companies and confirm with the manufacturers that the payment had been made.

Kerr admitted TCM failed to remit about $603,500 in payments from four manufacturers between December 2016 and April 2017, the statement said. TCM emailed confirmation reports to manufacturers that falsely stated their payments had been forwarded to trucking companies.

– Bryan Lipiner