Crime

Crook Norman Shy and School Administrator Ask For Mercy in Kickback Scheme

August 23, 2016, 5:45 PM
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Norman Shy (screen shot photo from WDIV video)

There's plenty of people in Detroit and beyond, including federal prosecutors, who have little sympathy for millionaire school supply vendor Norman Shy, who stole more than $2.7 million from the impoverished Detroit Public Schools in a kickback scheme involving 12 principals and one administrator, Clara Flowers. Flowers alone got $324,785 in  kickbacks.

Shy got the school officials to sign off on bogus invoices for goods he never delivered. In turn, he gave them kickbacks.

Now, both are set to be sentenced next month, and both are asking for mercy, reports Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press. 

Baldas reports on the two:

They've expressed similar claims in court documents:   We're old with health issues. We took responsibility for our crimes. And our good deeds in life should outweigh the bad.

Shy, 74, of Franklin, who faces seven years in prison for billing Detroit Public Schools $2.7 million for supplies that were never delivered, is asking for three years instead -- or 30-36 months.  Flowers, 61,  who  faces nearly six years in prison for approving many of Shy's phony invoices in exchange for $324,785 in  kickbacks,  wants a break, too.  She hasn't requested a specific sentence, only that the judge go below her guideline range, which is 57-71 months.

In a filing on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office wrote: 

The gravity of the fraud that Shy perpetrated upon DPS, the taxpayers and, most importantly, upon the children of Detroit, cannot be overstated. The struggles of DPS have been well-documented in the media: deplorable building conditions; teacher shortages; severe lack of school supplies and equipment; overcrowded classrooms; lack of funding.


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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