Former Chicago schools CEO pleads guilty to corruption charges
US News
Former Chicago schools CEO pleads guilty to corruption charges
The former head of Chicago Public Schools pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to a fraud charge in an alleged scheme to steer millions in no-bid contracts to education firms in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who ran the nation’s third-largest school district for nearly three years, had faced 20 fraud counts, each with a maximum 20-year prison term. However, she pleaded guilty to one fraud count in federal court in Chicago. In exchange, prosecutors will dismiss all the other counts.
I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit (:
Barbara Byrd-Bennett In one of her alleged email exchanges
Federal prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 7 ½ years in prison. U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang will sentence the 66-year-old at a later date. Mayor Rahm Emanuel hired Byrd-Bennett as CEO in 2012, and she resigned earlier this year amid the federal probe into $23 million in no-bid contracts the cash-strapped district had awarded to her previous employer, educational consulting firm SUPES Academy.
