Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Page 3
Ex-Glendale Councilman Indicted For Embezzling $305,000 From Local Farmer’s Market
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A former Glendale city councilman and mayor has been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly embezzling, over eight years, some $305,000 from a local farmers’ market, officials said.
According to a statement from Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, former council member John Drayman pleaded not guilty to the charge before Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg yesterday morning.
The grand jury’s 28-count indictment alleges that starting in 2002, Drayman served as director of the Montrose Shopping Park Association’s Sunday Harvest Market from 2002 to 2011. Drayman was responsible for collecting proceeds from the event and turning them over to the association, which overseas a number of concerns in Glendale’s Montrose section.
But instead of so doing, according to the indictment, Drayman embezzled some $305,000 in Harvest Market proceeds from the beginning of 2004 to April 11, 2011, laundering the funds through his own bank account. In the process, the indictment states, he also committed perjury by omitting to mention the source of the income on his state Fair Political Practice forms. It is also alleged that he submitted a false credit application to a mortgage lender in 2010 and failing to report his stolen revenues to the state Franchise Tax Board.
According to the statement, the association discovered the embezzlement in May 2011, and reported it to the Glendale Police, who launched an investigation with the Franchise Tax Board.
Deputy District Attorneys Susan Schwartz and Dana Aratani with the Office’s Public Integrity Division are prosecuting the case, Cooley said.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company