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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Chicago Public School Superintendent indicted thanks to mother with a blog
By Fran Eaton and Dennis LaComb | Watchdog Arena
When blogger Sarah Karp started digging through a pile of Chicago Public
School papers in 2013, neither she nor anyone else could have imagined that
her curiosity and sense of public service would lead to the downfall of the
nation’s third largest school district’s top official.
Last Thursday, former Chicago Public School CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was
indicted by a federal grand jury for funneling no-bid CPS contracts to
former employers in exchange for kickbacks.
Sarah Karp, whose son attends sixth grade at a Chicago public school, said
while reviewing CPS paperwork, she found that the CPS Board had quietly
approved a $20-million contract with SUPES Academy, a non-profit educational
group where Byrd-Bennett had worked before taking charge of Chicago Public
Schools.
That scenario didn’t set right with Karp. She wrote in July 2013 about her
findings on Catalyst Chicago, a blog that covers urban school issues.
“After covering CPS for almost a decade, I knew it was unheard of for the
district to award a no-bid contract of that magnitude, especially for
something that other organizations are able to handle. It was suspicious for
SUPES, a small company not well known to education experts in the city, to
be awarded such a large contract,” she explained.
Not only did the information concern Ms. Karp, her story on Catalyst Chicago
caught the eye of Chicago Public Schools’ Inspector General Jim Sullivan.
Before long, the Chicago area FBI was looking into the deal.
“Graft and corruption in our city’s public school system tears at the
fabric of a vital resource for the children of Chicago,” said Zachary T.
Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “
School officials and city vendors who abuse the public trust will be held
accountable.”
Screenshot from CBS News 7 Chicago
Sarah Karp, citizen journalist, being swamped by reporters after Byrd-
Bennett indictment
At a press conference announcing the indictment of Byrd-Bennett and two
former associates, Fardon acknowledged Sarah Karp’s reporting as igniting
the investigation.
He also said that Byrd-Bennett was cooperating with authorities and was
expected to plead guilty to the charges at her arraignment scheduled for
October 13, 2015.
Before taking a job at CPS, from 2011 to April 2012, Byrd-Bennett served as
a consultant for SUPES Academy, a professional group based in Wilmette,
Illinois that trains school administrators. There, Byrd-Bennett worked with
Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas, who owned and operated SUPES.
Karp said finding the connection between Byrd-Bennett’s past employment and
the CPS no-bid contract triggered more digging.
“I discovered Byrd-Bennett had worked for the company as a consultant,”
Karp said. “What’s more, there was evidence that she was still working for
another Solomon and Vranas company after she took a position with CPS.”
Karp found that while Byrd-Bennett consulted for CPS between May 2012 and
October 12, 2012, she continued to stay involved in a second Solomon-Vranas
entity. After the short CPS consulting stint, Byrd-Bennett assumed the role
of CPS’ chief executive officer until she resigned in May 2015.
Beginning in April 2012, the federal indictment says, Byrd-Bennett, Solomon
and Vranas “knowingly devised, intended to devise, and participated in a
scheme to defraud and to obtain money and property from CPS” by fraudulent
means.
Byrd-Bennett is said to have agreed to accept bribes and kickbacks that
would be paid by $127,000 being deposited into each of her twin grandsons’
“college tuition accounts” when she returned to SUPES as an employee–even
if for just a day.
An email from Solomon to Byrd on December 6, 2012 said, “It is our
assumption, that the distribution will serve as a signing bonus upon your
return to SUPES/Synesi. If you only join for the day, you will be the
highest paid person on the planet for that day. Regardless, it will be paid
out on day one.”
For the agreed upon fee, Byrd-Bennett provided information to Solomon and
Vranas about proposal requests, spoke on the company’s behalf to encourage
contract obligations, asked for help of specific CPS officials and falsely
represented that she had formally resigned from the SUPES Academy.
As a result, Byrd-Bennett was charged with 15 counts of mail fraud and five
counts of wire fraud for the emails scheming fraud of federal and state
taxpayers. Each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, in addition
to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
Karp said that when she first began requesting information from CPS, she was
treated as “an enemy” and her requests were, for the most part, ignored.
“You know, if the enemy is somebody that tries to make sure that somebody’
s not stealing from the government that the mayor runs, than I guess I’m
the enemy,” Karp told a local television reporter.
But a system like the Chicago Public Schools that is pleading for higher and
higher property taxes and closing doors of neighborhood schools in attempts
to cut costs has no business wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, Karp
said.
“This is something that my kid, other kids, they need, depend on. And, you
know, there are so many people out there scrambling and worried about what’
s going to happen over the next month. It’s just not a good day to say
money was wasted,” Karp said.
Since the 2012 story, Karp moved to research and write for Chicago-based
Better Government Association, a transparency group known for its efforts
rooting out public corruption.
As a result of Karp’s work, the district cancelled the SUPES contract in
April 2015, when the federal investigation came to light. SUPES received $12
million of the $20.5 million no-bid contract.
Prosecutors say they will seek restitution from the company and its owners.
UPDATE: On Tuesday Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty and apologized for
her actions.
This article was written by a contributor of Watchdog Arena, Franklin Center
’s network of writers, bloggers, and citizen journalists. |
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