A former Obama administration official is charged with stealing more than $218,000 from charter schools.
Seth Andrew faces charges of wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements to a financial institution, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced Tuesday.
The Department of Justice alleges that in 2005, Andrew founded a network of charter schools based in New York City. In 2013, he left his job as superintendent of the charter school network for a job in former President Barack Obama s Department of Education. He later worked as a senior adviser in the Obama White House s Office of Educational Technology.
Ex-White House adviser charged in $200K theft from schools
LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press
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NEW YORK (AP) The founder of a national charter school network who once served as a White House adviser under President Barack Obama was arrested Tuesday on charges alleging he stole over $200,000 from the network and used it to get a better interest rate on a multimillion-dollar apartment.
Seth Andrew, founder of Democracy Prep, was arrested in Manhattan on wire fraud, money laundering and false statement charges.
Attorney Michael Yaeger said Andrew, 42, will plead not guilty to the charges, though no plea was required Tuesday, when Andrew was released on $500,000 bail after an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a release that Andrew stole $218,000 “from the very same schools he helped create.”
She said he then used the money to obtain a better interest rate on a mortgage for a $2.3 million Manhattan apartment.
Andrew was a founder of Democracy Prep when it started in New York City in 2005. It later expanded across the United States, flourishing after its methods helped raise test scores for economically challenged children in Harlem.
According to a criminal complaint, Andrew left his role as a superintendent in his schools network in the spring of 2013 and began working in the United States Department of Education and as a senior adviser in the Office of Educational Technology at the White House until November 2016.
Ex-White House Adviser Accused of Theft From Charter Schools
(Bloomberg) A former Obama White House official was charged by federal prosecutors with stealing $218,000 from a charter school network he founded and using the money to get a lower rate on a mortgage for a Manhattan apartment.Seth Andrew, 42, who served as a senior adviser in President Barack Obama’s second term in the Office of Educational Technology, was arrested Tuesday in New York on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and making fal…
5 hours ago|Los Angeles, United States
Seth Andrew, who once led a charter school in Rhode Island that evolved into Blackstone Valley Prep, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he stole more than $200,000 from the national network of charters he founded, using it to get a better interest rate on a New York City apartment.
Seth Andrew, founder of Democracy Prep, was arrested in Manhattan on wire fraud, money laundering and false statement charges. Attorney Michael Yaeger said Andrew, 42, will plead not guilty to the charges.
In 2009, Andrew was recruited by then-Mayor Daniel McKee of Cumberland and the school’s board of directors to run a brand new mayoral academy called Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley.