A former senior adviser to the Obama administration pleaded guilty Friday to wire fraud for a scheme to steal $218,000 from a charter school system he helped create.
Seth Andrew, who served as a senior adviser in the Office of Educational Technology during the Obama administration, confessed to wire fraud before U.S. District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan federal court, officials announced Friday. He used the stolen money to get a lower interest rate on a mortgage for a multimillion-dollar apartment in Manhattan, prosecutors said last April upon his arrest.
“Seth Andrew, a former White House advisor, admitted today to devising a scheme to steal from the very same schools he helped create,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Andrew now faces time in federal prison for abusing his position and robbing those he promised to help.”
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In 2005, Andrew, 42, helped create the Democracy Prep Public Schools, a charter school system in New York and other states, according to multiple outlets. He left his position in the charter school system for a position in the Department of Education in 2013. He left his position in 2016 and “officially severed his relationship” with the school system in 2017, prosecutors said.
The school system was required to maintain escrow accounts with funding to be used if the school system dissolved, the Department of Justice said. Andrew gained access to these accounts and transferred money to his private bank accounts, according to prosecutors.
The transfers happened on several different occasions in 2019, about two years after he cut ties with the school system, according to the documents. The funds in the escrow accounts were not allowed to be moved by Andrew or anyone without the appropriate approval, according to prosecutors.
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Andrew agreed to pay restitution to the school system, DOJ said.
The former DOE official could face up to 20 years in prison for the plot. He will be sentenced on April 14.
