A jury trial began Friday for a Tarzana couple who stand accused of misusing more than $200,000 in funds from the Ivy Academia charter schools they founded.
Eugene Selivanov, 40, and his wife, 36-year-old Tatyana Berkovich, are standing trial in the downtown Los Angeles courthouse on accusations that they used school funds, which included public money, on lavish spending for their personal expenses.
Selivanov was executive director while Berkovich served as president and founder of Ivy Academia, which has 1,100 students on three campuses in Canoga Park, Chatsworth and Woodland Hills.
"The defendants did not live by the rules," said Los Angeles County Assistant Deputy District Attorney Sandi Roth.
But Jeff Rutherford, who represents Selivanov, argued that both his client and his wife, parents of three