IDEA Public Schools CEO [] and Chief Operating Officer [] have been fired after a forensic review found “substantial evidence” that top leaders at the state’s largest charter network misused money and staff for personal gain, the organization’s board president announced Tuesday.
In a letter to IDEA staff, Board President ... did allege that staff members’ actions “appeared to be done in a manner to avoid detection by the standard external audit and internal control processes that the Board had in place at the time.”
In late 2019, ... IDEA came under fire after the charter network made plans to spend millions of dollars leasing and operating a private jet. IDEA later backtracked on the plan, the Houston Chronicle reported. Other decisions also received scrutiny, like IDEA’s annual $400,000 expense on tickets and box seats at the AT&T Center and some board members’ business dealings with IDEA.
The founder of a prominent New York City charter school network pilfered more than $200,000 from its accounts so he could get a better deal on a $2.37 million Manhattan apartment, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
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The criminal complaint includes a surveillance image of [the founder] sporting his signature Democracy Prep yellow cap in a bank while he carried out his scheme in 2019, authorities said.