Edited by: TJVNews.com
Seems like even former presidents have ghosts that emerge from the proverbial closet at one point or another. While it may be no personal reflection on him, a former education adviser to the Obama administration was arrested Tuesday for allegedly absconding with more than $200,000 from a charter school network he founded, according to federal authorities.
The New York Post reported that Seth Andrew, 42, (who founded the Democracy Prep Public Schools network in 2005), embezzled the $218,005 to secure a lower interest rate on a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment in 2019, prosecutors alleged in a complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.
CNN reported that Andrew was charged by prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York with wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a bank.
Prosecutors say Andrew left the network in 2013 for a job at the Department of Education, and later became a senior adviser in the Office of Educational Technology at the White House, where he continued to be paid by the charter school network. Prosecutors say Andrew left his role in the White House in November 2016 and cut ties with the school network in January 2017, as was reported by CNN.
SDNY spokesman James Margolin said that Andrew was taken into custody Tuesday in Manhattan and released on his own personal recognizance after an initial appearance, as was reported by CNN. Andrew’s attorney, Michael Yaeger, said Andrew will plead not guilty and is reviewing the government’s case. No plea was entered Tuesday, Margolin said.
Democracy Prep CEO Natasha Trivers said that the school alerted the appropriate authorities once it learned about the unauthorized withdrawals, as was reported by CNN.
“Seth left our network in 2013. His alleged actions are a profound betrayal of all that we stand for and to you and your children, the scholars and families that we serve,” Trivers’ email said. “To be clear, at no time did the alleged crimes pose any risk to our students, staff or operations in any way.”
Trivers also added that the activity did not have “any adverse effect on our scholars or the functioning of our schools” and that the school system has since instituted financial safeguards, which lead to the discovery of the withdrawals, according to the CNN report.
CNN reported that according to a criminal complaint filed on April 20 and unsealed Tuesday, prosecutors allege that between March and August of 2019, Andrew used his former association with the network of schools to allegedly steal $218,005 of the school’s reserve money by using his email address affiliated with the schools to email a bank employee and convince them that he was still associated with the school, which he was not.
The complaint states that after allegedly stealing the school network’s money, Andrew “attempted to conceal the source of the stolen funds … and make it appear that the stolen funds belonged to a non-profit organization that Andrew founded, and currently appears to control.”
Prosecutors allege Andrew misrepresented that he “lawfully controlled” the money in order to obtain a discounted mortgage interest rate to buy an apartment in Manhattan, as was reported by CNN.
