The former head of the Chicago Public Schools will plead guilty to corruption charges that allege she steered more than $23M on no-bid contracts to education companies in exchange for big money bribes and kickbacks.
According to her lawyer, Barbara Byrd-Bennett "takes full responsibility for her conduct."
He said she would plead guilty at a later date to charges in the indictment, which also accuses the companies' owners of offering Byrd-Bennett a job and one-time payment — disguised as a lucrative signing bonus — once she left CPS, which is facing a steep budget shortfall and a severely underfunded pension system.
"If you only join for the day, you will be the highest paid person on the planet for that day," one of the executives wrote in an email to Byrd-Bennett about the bonus, according to the indictment.
The amount of kickbacks alleged in the charges is astonishing, "worth 10 percent of the value of the no-bid contracts, or about $2.3 million."
Byrd-Bennett, 66, is charged with several counts of mail and wire fraud; each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentences. U.S. attorney Zachary Fardon said the indictment accuses her of "abusing her power to line her own pockets and those of her co-defendants."
The longtime educator stepped down from the post about four months ago, amid a federal investigation into a contract between the district and SUPES Academy, a training academy where she once worked as a consultant.
Some of the other spoils offered to Byrd-Bennet include $127,000 placed in two bank accounts under the names of relatives and sporting event tickets. Byrd-Bennett wrote in response to one of the company owners offering her the kickbacks : "I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit."
Prosecutors allege the scheme started in 2012, the same year Mayor Rahm Emanuel chose her to become CEO of the nation's third largest school district. Rahm released a statement Thursday saying he was "saddened and disappointed to learn about the criminal activity" that led to the indictment.
"Our students, parents, teachers and principals deserve better," the Democrat said.