Feds: New $1.3M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools
DETROIT — 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 the school district, is charged by federal prosecutors with billing the district $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 Detroit Public Schools 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.
So far, the government has seized nearly $1 million from Starkey-Darden.
"Detroit students were cheated twice by this scheme. Students that needed tutoring never received it, and money that could have been spent on other resources was paid to Ms. Starkey-Darden as part of her fraud scheme,” said Detroit's FBI chief David Gelios.
The criminal charges against Starkey-Darden come two months after 14 individuals, including 12 district principals, were charged with helping a vendor bill Detroit Public Schools $2.7 million for school supplies that were rarely delivered in exchange for kickbacks.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Starkey-Darden, a 38-year employee with the district, 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 the district through five companies with the help of her husband and daughter — neither of whom have been charged.
Darden's lawyer, Gerald Evelyn, was not available for comment.
Detroit schools Transition Manager Steven Rhodes, a former federal judge who oversaw Detroit's historic bankruptcy, expressed frustration with the new charges.
"The alleged thievery perpetrated by this individual is inexcusable and represents a clear violation of the public trust that has robbed our students and staff of nearly $1.8 million in resources that should have been used for instruction in our classrooms," Rhodes said. "Everyone invested in the future of Detroit Public Schools should be outraged by the unlawful actions allegedly committed by this individual."
Rhodes said he would continue working with the U.S. Attorney's office and recently reinstated DPS Inspector General Bernadette Kakooza "to uncover this unacceptable behavior and bring the full force of the law against those who have the audacity to steal from our children."
Starkey-Darden's name first surfaced in court documents in 2014, when the federal government filed a civil forfeiture complaint against multiple banking accounts belonging to Starkey-Darden and her husband, Anthony Darden. The couple had come under the FBI's radar in 2011 during an investigation into their three after-school tutoring companies: Grants-N-Such, MI Learning Unlimited and The Learning Unlimited Companies.
Court documents show that over six years, the three companies received $6.1 million in federal program money that was meant to pay for tutoring at schools whose progress goals needed improvement.
According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, at least $1.2 million of that amount was ill-gotten.
The charges against Starkey-Darden come in the wake of numerous guilty pleas from district principals who admitted they accepted kickbacks from a school supply vendor in exchange for helping him submit phony invoices to Detroit Public Schools. So far, of the 14 individuals charged in that scheme, 12 have pleaded guilty, including 10 principals, an assistant superintendent and the vendor, Norman Shy, whom prosecutors said was at the center of that scheme.
“We hope that our work to uncover fraud in public school systems will deter others from stealing funds intended to educate children,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade.
Follow Tresa Baldas on Twitter: @TBaldas
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