by
Clara Smith
The kickback scandal in the Detroit Public Schools that publicly surfaced earlier this year involving a dozen school principals, an administrator and a very crooked vendor, has been hard to stomach.
What federal prosecutors also find hard to digest is the claim by ex-Detroit School Principal Clara Smith, who has pleaded guilty, that she used the $194,000 in kickbacks from school vendor Norman Shy of Franklin to benefit students. They say it isn't true.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Buckley, in a sentencing memorandum filed Monday in federal court, stated:
Between 2010 and June, 2014, Smith corruptly accepted kickbacks on various occasions. The total amount of kickbacks Smith accepted is approximately $194, 000. Records obtained reveal Smith’s purchases made at Art Van Furniture, El-Mar Furs, Delta Airlines, Royal Caribbean Cruises, several restaurants, Caesar’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and other personal expenditures. Additionally, to disguise the nature of the kickback payments, Smith wrote letters requesting co-conspirator Norman Shy to issue personal checks payable to her husband, to her daughter, and to various businesses or stores to pay for personal items she had purchased. Smith also requested Shy to write checks to credit card companies to pay her personal credit card bills, which Shy did.
Buckley goes on to write:
As outlined above, kickback payments in the forms of checks to family vendors and to businesses, as well as financial records prove that Smith spent the kickbacks she received on herself: inter alia, on cruises, airline expenses, and at casinos. However, the extent to which Smith characterizes her motivation as altruistic (that she fraudulently accepted a portion of the kickbacks from Shy to use “for the kids” is irrelevant.
The government is recommending a sentence of 37-46 months because of Smith's cooperation in the investigation.
Smith is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. Shy has yet to be sentenced.
The story about Monday's sentencing memorandum was first reported in the Detroit Free Press by Tresa Baldas.
