Corruption arraignment Tuesday for ex-Chicago schools CEO

The indictment comes at a critical time for Chicago Public Schools and its roughly 400,000 students. But she declined to answer questions about whether anyone in the mayor’s office has been contacted by federal investigators or whether the office has provided any documents to them.

In July, Emanuel named the city’s former transit chief, Forrest Claypool, as a replacement. Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her chief executive officer in the fall of that year.

“Graft and corruption is never a good thing, but it is particularly troubling when it impacts our schools, our kids”, Fardon said. It’s appropriate because, as near as I can tell, the main reason Emanuel hired Byrd-Bennett was to be the sympathetic public face-thus shielding him for blame-for the cuts, closings, testing policies, and other bad things he was doing to the schools.

An investigation began when it was found out that one no-bid contract for principal training had been entered into between CPS and SUPES for $20.5 million.

Byrd-Bennett also has been a school administrator in Detroit, Cleveland and New York City.

In an email to Solomon in December 2012, Byrd-Bennett asked that the amount of money deposited in each account be equal.

Byrd-Bennett’s attorney, Michael Scudder, in a statement said his client would plead guilty.

The conspiracy started shortly after she got the top job, prosecutors said.

October. 12, 2012. In this photo, Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett speaks at a news conference in Chicago. Fardon didn’t specify what charges would be involved.

“She is a public official who compromised her integrity by looking to line her own pockets”, Fardon said of Byrd-Bennett. During the last round of negotiations, teachers in Chicago went on strike for the first time in 25 years.

The Wilmette-based SUPES and the Evanston-based Synesi are also charged in the indictment, along with their respective former owners, GARY SOLOMON and THOMAS VRANAS. Vranas, 34, is facing 15 counts of mail fraud, two counts of bribery, four counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. The statement says Solomon has acknowledged “certain errors” in judgment, but that he’s disappointed he was charged.

Phones messages seeking comment from Vranas and his attorney weren’t immediately returned. On another occasion, she persuaded a vendor to the school system to serve as a sponsor of the SUPES Academy.

SUPES and Synesi are charged as corporate defendants with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud apiece. The indictment also alleges that Solomon offered to arrange for jobs for friends of Byrd-Bennett in exchange for contracts. Her annual salary was $250,000. With no public discussion, the six board members who were there voted for the contract, including Jesse Ruiz, who served briefly as Byrd-Bennett’s temporary replacement after she left. Soon after Byrd-Bennett took a paid leave of absence, and she resigned in May.