Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett is adjusting to a life of hone confinement after years in federal prison for defrauding taxpayers in a kickback scheme.
All the while, the district’s inspector general continued to investigate her dealings on behalf of the nation’s third-largest school district.
The CPS investigators have uncovered another multimillion-dollar contract Byrd-Bennett allegedly steered to her friends, along with efforts to get the same friends another deal, according to a report released Wednesday by Inspector General William Fletcher.
“The Byrd-Bennett investigations revealed one of the most exceptional cases of an official’s abuse of public trust in CPS’s history,” the report states. “The series of events in this case, transpiring throughout the course of Byrd-Bennett’s CPS tenure, showed again and again her disregard for CPS contracting rules, as she repeatedly tried to find ways to give CPS business to her friends.”
These accusations are insane in nature considering the current climate in our country. However, they are being proven as facts and not just accusations.
Ultimately, Byrd-Bennett was trying to get a third company to hire her friends as subcontractors to deliver the same type of services as an earlier illegal contract, the report states.
“The preponderance of the evidence showed that Byrd-Bennett agreed to execute a contract and purchase $3.8 million in services from Company 3 based on an understanding that it would partner with Friend A and Friend B,” according to the report.
