Former charter schools executive Brenda Belton commandeered the name of a legitimate school vendor to shuffle money to herself, her friends and her family, a grand jury has been told.
Grand jurors are looking at evidence that Belton took the name of a previously approved school vendor called Equal Access, sources familiar with the investigation said.
Belton was fired in October after spending three years as head of the Board of Education’s charter schools. She is the target of a grand jury investigation.
The sources spoke anonymously because grand jury proceedings are meant to be secret.
Belton’s lawyer, Vincent H. Cohen Jr., refused comment for this story.
Authorities now suspect Belton tacked “in Education” onto Equal Access’ name.
School records show Equal Access in Education was paid hundreds of thousands of public dollars through Belton’s office.
Its listed headquarters is a building that Belton used to own and that her daughter currently co-owns.
Belton sat on the committee that investigated Equal Access in Education as a contractor for the charter schools, one source told The Examiner.
The previously approved company, Equal Access, had already received school contracts, sources said.
Authorities now suspect Belton took advantage of a chaotic schools bureaucracy to squeeze the legitimate contractor out, sources said.
Equal Access was on a list of approved vendors before Belton took over the charter schools office in 2003, documents obtained by The Examiner show.
Because Equal Access appeared on a list of approved vendors, schools comptroller Abinet Belachew was prevented from stopping payments to Equal Access in Education early on, sources said.
Belachew did eventually block payments to Equal Access in Education. Belton accused him of breaking the law, sources said.
Sources said ex-employees have told the grand jury Belton was personally collecting checks made out to Equal Access in Education.
The investigation was prompted by schools’ financial analyst Steve Kapani. He went to the D.C. Inspector General’s office in March.
School records show that several charter school vendors were paid under the same tax identification numbers. Sources have said that the vendors were all friends of Belton’s.
It’s not clear how Equal Access became an approved vendor in the first place. The number listed for the contact person no longer functions. Schools lawyer Karen Jones Herbert has not replied to a Freedom of Information Act request for the company’s procurement records.
The grand jury investigation is led by the U.S. attorney’s office, the D.C. Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Education.
