“Our students, parents, teachers and principals deserve better”, Emanuel said in statement. It’s appropriate because, as near as I can tell, the main reason Emanuel hired Byrd-Bennett was to be the sympathetic public face-thus shielding him for blame-for the cuts, closings, testing policies, and other bad things he was doing to the schools.
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Fardon is expected to announce the indictment in a press conference Thursday afternoon. A month later, she asked the Board of Education to approve the SUPES $20.5 million deal that had gone though CPS’ “sole-source” or no-bid process.
No date has been set for an arraignment of Byrd-Bennett, and Fardon said it is not yet clear when she would enter her guilty plea.
In one exchange between Byrd-Bennett and Solomon, she wrote “I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit”. Her lawyer, Michael Scudder, said Byrd-Bennett would plead guilty to the charges.
Solomon’s attorney, Shelly Kulwin, said his client had cooperated fully with federal authorities since the beginning of the investigation, including turning over emails and other evidence before they were subpoenaed.
Chicago’s top federal prosecutor says the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools plans to plead guilty in a corruption case linked to a $20 million no-bid contract. Fardon didn’t specify what charges would be involved.
Byrd-Bennett, 66, was charged with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud. “The American people expect honest services from their government leaders, particularly those responsible for leading our teachers and caring for our children”, said Chicago Federal Bureau of Investigation acting special agent in charge John Brown. Lewis says the union is now focused on securing a new contract. It was suspicious for SUPES, a small company not well known to education experts in the city to be awarded such a large contract.
Two of her co-defendants, Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas, who owned two of the companies that allegedly got CPS contracts illegally, are set to appear before Chang at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Solomon, 47, of Wilmette, is charged with 15 counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, two counts of bribery of a government official, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Today, Byrd-Bennett was indicted for taking bribes to steer a no-bid contract to SUPES, a company she used to work for.
Investigators were looking at what role Byrd-Bennett’s played in a no-bid contract the the school system granted to SUPES Academy.
Phone and email messages seeking comment from Byrd-Bennett and the mayor’s office weren’t immediately returned.
According to reports by the Chicago Sun-Times, Mary Martin, Rosemary Herpel and Sherry Ulery – all former administrators here who later worked for Byrd-Bennett in Chicago – were looked at by federal investigators this summer.
Barbara Byrd-Bennett was indicted Thursday, about four months after she resigned amid an investigation into the contract between the district and SUPES Academy, a training academy where she once worked as a consultant.
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Bryd Bennett was appointed to the district’s highest office by the mayor in 2012.
