"Federal authorities have charged at least 12 school principals in Detroit with participating in a $900,000 kickback scheme involving fake school supply orders which wasted millions of dollars while district leaders begged for more state money.
Businessman Norman Shy made $908,500 in payments to school principals in return for receiving a series of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) contracts to deliver school supplies, totaling about $2.7 million, according to court documents.The alleged scheme was quite involved, with principals submitting fake invoices to cover for Shy, who often never even delivered the promised school supplies.
The federal probe implicates Shy and 12 current and former principals and one administrator.
The least-involved member is accused of receiving $4,000 in bribes, while Cara Flowers, the assistant superintendent for DPS’s special education department, is accused of taking a whopping $324,000.
The alleged kickbacks included not only cash payments, but gift cards and even free home repairs.
Astonishingly, less than two months ago, one of the charged principals, Ronald Alexander, appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”, where his sad story about a crumbling school building spurred DeGeneres to make a $500,000 donation, touted as her most generous gift ever..."
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