Highlights:-
- Employee fraudulently misappropriated funds
- Diverted funds to buy Iphones, Ipads etc for personal use
- Employee has pleaded not guilty
A business clerk at Caldwell Math and Science Academy on the South Side faces federal criminal charges in the latest indictment to result from a burgeoning fraud investigation. In the new indictment, Ashley Beard, Debra Bannack, and Anthony Rasmussen, who worked for a Chicago Public Schools vendor, are charged with wire fraud. All three have been charged with defrauding CPS employees by delivering iPhones, iPads, and gift cards
Bannack and Rasmussen are both from Schaumburg, while Beard hails from Hammond, Indiana. Warehouse Direct has only been designated as “Company A” in charge documents, according to Bannack, who worked for the company alongside Rasmussen. Beard’s attorney could not immediately be reached Tuesday. Rasmussen’s lawyer declined to comment. Also facing charges in are former Brennemann Elementary School Principal Sarah Jackson Abedelal, former business manager William Jackson and former Assistant Principal Jennifer McBride.
Beard was allegedly in charge of obtaining ink, paper, and other printer supplies, according to the new accusation. It was alleged that Beard, Abedelal, Jackson, and other CPS employees would order non-school items from Bannack and then submit fictitious paperwork to CPS to make the orders appear legitimate, while Bannack and Rasmussen provided them with iPhones, iPads, and more than $40,000 in prepaid gift cards, including $2,000 in Disney prepaid gift cards. According to the indictment, between 2015 and 2017, the defendants conspired to falsify order records to make it appear that legitimate school supplies — such as paper, ink, and toner — had been delivered, when thousands of dollars had been diverted to buy iPads, iPhones, and gift cards for personal use. As a result of the scheme, Bannack and the CPS employees fraudulently misappropriated approximately $75,000 in Chicago Public Schools funds, the indictment alleged. Abedelal, meanwhile, in a 10-count wire fraud indictment alleging a separate seven-year scheme to have employees file for overtime they didn’t work and kick back at least $200,000 to her.
Abedelal was the principal of the Buena Park neighbourhood school for almost 12 years until the CPS inspector general started looking into allegations of impropriety in 2019. According to the accusations, when investigators visited Brennemann in March 2019, McBride told Abedelal to “purchase a ‘burner’ phone” so they could keep their communications hidden from the inspector general.
Abedelal has entered a not guilty plea. Dena Singer, Abedelal’s attorney, has stated that she “is a fantastic friend and family to everyone who knows her, and she is looking forward to putting this event behind her.” Brennemann, which is located in the 4200 block of North Clarendon Avenue, educates approximately 400 children in prekindergarten through eighth grade. “Where high standards and excellence are expected,” is the school’s motto.
