Jury in charter fraud trial hears of excess
PHILADELPHIA Jurors in Dorothy June Brown's federal fraud trial heard Tuesday about multiple salaries paid to Brown and money she received from management firms she controlled.
Brown is accused of defrauding the four charter schools she founded of $6.7 million and then conspiring with two former administrators to obstruct justice by orchestrating a cover-up.
Francis L. Gizaza, an accountant who began preparing tax returns for Brown's schools in 1998, reviewed several years of nonprofit tax forms for the schools. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan E. Burnes asked him to highlight Brown's salaries.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006, Brown was paid a total of $472,483 from three of her schools: $186,929 as the chief executive of the Laboratory Charter School; $108,554 as CEO of Ad Prima Charter School; and $177,000 as executive director of Main Line Academy, a small private school for students with special needs she established in Bala Cynwyd.
Laboratory has campuses in Northern Liberties, Overbrook, and Wynnefield. Ad Prima is in Overbrook and Frankford.
Brown stepped down as CEO of both charters in 2008 after the state law was changed to bar charter administrators from