Feds: Detroit paid $1.27M for tutoring that wasn't provided
Source: Associated Press
Feds: Detroit paid $1.27M for tutoring that wasn't provided
Ed White, Associated Press
Updated 2:58 pm, Monday, May 23, 2016
DETROIT (AP) — A woman who retired from Detroit Public Schools after nearly 40 years created several companies and billed the struggling district for at least $1.27 million for tutoring services that weren't provided, authorities said Monday.
The case against Carolyn Starkey Darden is more bad publicity for the district, which is pleading for a financial rescue from state lawmakers. Separately, a dozen former or current principals are charged with accepting kickbacks from a longtime contractor.
Darden, a former director of grant development, is charged with theft. She retired from the district in 2005. For seven years, through 2012, she submitted fraudulent invoices for services, according to the government.
. . .
"Detroit students were cheated twice by this scheme," said David Gelios, head of the FBI in Detroit. "Students that needed tutoring never received it, and money that could have been spent on other resources was paid to (Darden) as part of her fraud scheme."
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Feds-Detroit-paid-1-2M-for-tutoring-that-wasn-t-7940235.php
Feds: New $1.2M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools
Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press 6:02 p.m. EDT May 23, 2016
An ex-DPS grant administrator is charged with cheating kids out of $1.2 million in tutoring services.
Another corruption case has surfaced for the troubled Detroit Public Schools, this one involving a former grants administrator who is charged with pocketing nearly $1.3 million that was supposed to be used for tutoring services for kids.
Carolyn Starkey-Darden, 69, the former director of grant development at DPS, is charged by federal prosecutors with billing DPS $1.275 million over seven years for never-delivered tutoring services through companies she created. She did this, court records show, by submitting phony documents to the district that included doctored test scores, forged attendance records and parental signatures and fake individual learning plans -- all of which went on forms that were required by DPS before payment could be made.
To bolster this claim, federal investigators cited some of Starkey-Darden's emails, which are included in court documents. "I put in some fake scores for a few kids at Denby, just to get their plans approved. When and if we get real ones ... just replace what I put in," Starkey-Darden wrote in a 2008 email to an employee at a tutoring firm owned by her husband.
. . .
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Starkey-Darden, a 38-year employee with DPS, ran her scheme between 2005 and 2012 through several companies she created. One of them was Grants 'N Such, an educational consulting firm for public or private schools. Court documents show that Darden formed Grants 'N Such on July 20, 2005 -- three months before she retired -- but she continued to do business with DPS through five companies with the help of her husband and daughter -- neither of whom have been charged.
More:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/05/23/detroit-public-schools-corruption-tutoring-scam/84787254/
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