Ex Chicago Schools Chief To Cop To $23M Kickback Scheme

He spent much of his hard-fought re-election bid earlier this year defending his controversial schools decisions and Bennett’s hiring.

Fardon is expected to announce the indictment in a press conference Thursday afternoon. It accuses Byrd-Bennett of steering $20 million in no-bid contracts to an education company where she used to be a consultant. The CEO Byrd-Bennett resigned from Chicago Public Schools on May 29.

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. Fardon didn’t specify what charges would be involved. She is charged with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud. According to the Chicago Tribune, the investigation had also extended to City Hall, with subpoenaed letters from SUPES bragging about sway held over the mayor’s office and their heavy involvement in the recruitment of several officials. This news comes at a time when the Chicago Teachers Union are deadlocked over contract negotiations, with the mayor calling on teachers to take a 7 percent pay cut.

“If you only join for the day, you will be the highest paid person on the planet for that day”, one of the executives wrote in an email to Byrd-Bennett about the bonus, according to the indictment.

“My group had testified at numerous board meetings because it was a no-bid contract”, Katten says. It was suspicious for SUPES, a small company not well known to education experts in the city to be awarded such a large contract. Solomon and Vranas were also charged with two counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Vranas’ attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. SUPES Academy provided training and professional development for principals and other school administrators. If convicted, she could face a maximum 20-year prison sentence on each count. In exchange, Byrd-Bennett received hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks, which the collective disguised by funneling them into bank accounts set up under the names of Byrd-Bennett’s relatives, the indictment alleges. SUPES also was brought in to coach CPS network chiefs through a pilot program under Byrd-Bennett’s predecessor, Jean-Claude Brizard, but the program was discontinued after a year. Solomon and Vranas allegedly presented Byrd-Bennett with two college fund accounts, each containing $127,000, that were set up for two of her relatives, according to the indictment.

According to reports by the Chicago Sun-Times, Mary Martin, Rosemary Herpel and Sherry Ulery – all former administrators here who later worked for Byrd-Bennett in Chicago – were looked at by federal investigators this summer.

SUPES Academy worked out of an unmarked building in Evanston and even though they still have contracts with other school districts, they no longer have offices there. Byrd-Bennett has been on leave since April amid the federal probe.