White collar criminals snared by federal probes
(District of Columbia) A former finance director from a Texas school district was sentenced to prison for stealing more than $4 million in public money. A director of federal programs in Alabama is going to jail after steering $24 million in school contracts to her husband’s company.
And in Virginia, a middle school principal was convicted in an embezzlement scheme involving fake timesheets and work orders.
These are among the 35 investigations completed during the six-month period ending in March, 2015 by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. The probes – mostly focused on fraud and corruption – recovered more than $54 million in settlements and fines while sending a number of school employees to jail.
Although a part of the Education Department, the OIG operates independently with responsibility and authority to conduct audits and investigations into schools’ use of federal money with the goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.
The concept was introduced into the civilian side of the federal government in 1978 with the creation of Inspector General’s at 12 agencies – but today there are 72 across most of the federal bureaucracy.
A report out this month details activities by the investigative bureau over use of federal education money and the serious threat of penalty public school officials face when found to have violated federal compliance requirements.
If the majority of cases that come to the watchdog agency involve violations done in good faith, unfortunately, many do not.
One of the more notable cases came out of Dallas where owners of a Supplemental Education Service firm bilked schools out of more than $3 million between 2011 and 2013. Owners of the company, one of whom was a former teacher in the Dallas Independent School District, had organized four companies to mislead state and local officials.
They also had teams going door to door in low-income neighborhoods giving gifts to students agreeing to sign up for the tutoring service and then later used the student information to falsify attendance logs to back fraudulent bills to the schools.
Company owners have plead guilty to fraud and are awaiting sentencing.
In the Alabama case, a central player was the director of federal programs for the state department of education. Her crime was participating in the decision to award $24 million in School White collar criminals snared by federal probes :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:
