LYNWOOD : Businessman Arrested in Theft of City Funds

A businessman was arrested Tuesday for allegedly bilking the city of Lynwood out of hundreds of thousands of dollars given to him to help fledgling business owners.

Richard Lincoln Calhoun, 57, faces charges of grand theft, money laundering and submitting false vouchers to the city. He was jailed pending his arraignment today.

Deputy District Atty. Efrem M. Grail said Calhoun is suspected of stealing more than $500,000.

Grail said the city issued a $694,800 check to Calhoun in 1991 to set up a machine shop that was to have been one of the cornerstones of Entrepreneur Development Academy, a $2-million, city-funded organization created to provide job training and clerical support to new business owners.

Profits were to be used to help make the academy self-supporting, but Calhoun never opened the shop, officials said. Academy officials later took possession of the equipment and opened the shop, city officials said.

A private auditing firm hired by the city concluded last year that the academy kept shoddy records and failed to keep adequate control over the funds.

Councilman Paul H. Richards II expressed surprise at Calhoun’s arrest and defended the academy. Its bookkeeping has improved and the city now has tighter control, he said.