Gary N. Drawbaugh of Emporia made his first appearance in Lyon County District Court on Tuesday on two charges of theft by deception and one count of making a false writing.
Drawbaugh operates three companies that were, until several months ago, approved to bid on contracts for the U.S. government. Drawbaugh’s companies are Sterling Supply & Manufacturing, Vehicles of Kansas and Vehicles Inc.
He and his companies have been placed on an “excluded parties” list and are banned from bidding until October 2011, according to information from the Defense Logistics Agency.
“The ban is for any agency as part of the executive branch of government,” said Dennis Gauci, media relations officer for DLA. “It’s barring him as well as his companies from doing business with the government.”
A debarment letter sent from the agency to Drawbaugh and his companies states a summary of information on which the bidding ban was based. The letter was sent by M. Susan Chadick, special assistant for contracting integrity.
In the letter, Chadick asserts that Drawbaugh and his companies received payments from the government for the contracted materials, but Drawbaugh did not pay the companies he hired as subcontractors.
Chadick’s list includes, in brief:
• An approximately $22,055 contract with Sterling to deliver cowhide leather to the Defense Distribution Depot in Albany, Ga., through subcontractor Silver Creek Leather Co. Silver Creek filed a report on the incident with the Emporia Police Department. Chadick’s letter said Silver Creek’s private collection efforts have been unsuccessful.
• An approximately $33,278.70 contract for bleached and unbleached cheesecloth for the Defense Distribution Depot through subcontractor American Fiber & Finishing, Inc.
• An approximately $9,185.14 contract through Vehicles of Kansas for 1,260 pounds of paraffin for delivery to Defense Distribution Depots in Tracy, Calif., and New Cumberland, Pa. through subcontractor Blended Waxes.
F An approximately $90,270 contract through Vehicles Inc.for approximately 22,000 Bibles to deliver to the depots in Tracy and New Cumberland through subcontractor Star Bible Publications.
F An approximately $114,163 contract through Sterling for 116,892 pounds of aluminum powder for the U.S. Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Okla., through subcontractor ECKA Granules of America. ECKA alleges that Sterling still owes $43,718.94 for the powder. Drawbaugh made partial payments to ECKA totaling $72,681.01, and subsequently sent three more checks totaling $43,718.94. The three checks were returned by ECKA’s bank, marked “insufficient funds,” Chadick wrote. Lyon County District Court on July 2, 2004, ordered Drawbaugh to pay the remaining money to ECKA. The payment had not been made on Oct. 30, 2008, the date stamped on Chadick’s letter to Drawbaugh and his companies.
• An approximately $56,225 contract to Sterling for sterile gauze through Derma Sciences Canada. Derma Sciences alleges that Sterling owes it $59,389.50 for the gauze.
• Information in the record also indicates that Drawbaugh failed to pay suppliers on two contracts for supplying hay and six grain bins through Sterling through a contract with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Chadick wrote in the letter that Drawbaugh told an EPD detective and an outside investigator on Feb. 3, 2005, that he owed money to vendors under Department of Defense contracts, but asserted that “his actions with respect to his contractors were not fraudulent, but merely an everyday fact of conducting business. He also stated that he intends to pay his debts, but is currently unable to do so.”
In Lyon County court, Drawbaugh, doing business as Sterling Supply and Manufacturing Co., is accused of theft by deception of at least $25,000 but less than $100,000, a level 7 non-person felony.
Drawbaugh allegedly used deception to obtain control over property belonging to Derma Sciences of Toronto, Canada. The acts occurred from about Sept. 26, 2006, through approximately Jan. 27, 2007, in Lyon County, according to the complaint filed here by Steven A. Karrer, assistant Kansas attorney general.
The second count of deception, between $1,000 and $25,000 in value, also involved Drawbaugh and Sterling Supply and Manufacturing Co., who allegedly used deception to gain control over and permanently deprive the owner — Silver Creek Leather Co. of New Albany, Ind. — of money. The charge is a level 9, non-person felony.
Drawbaugh also is accused of “knowingly, unlawfully, intentionally, feloniously and with the intent to defraud, obstruct detection of a theft, or induce official action, make a written instrument, to-wit: Purchase Order Number 61804-4, with knowledge that such information falsely stated or represented some material matter, to-wit: Source and method of payment. …”
The charge, making false information, is a level 8, non-person felony.
Drawbaugh is free on $7,500 surety bond.
Drawbaugh could not be reached for comment; two telephone numbers assigned either to him or to his address were no longer in service.