Saturday, August 13, 2016

Key figure in CPS bribery scandal close to plea agreement

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Key figure in CPS bribery scandal close to plea agreement.
Gary Solomon, co-owner of the SUPES Academy
education training firm, leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse
on Oct. 14, 2015, after pleading not guilty on charges
 that he and his partner Thomas Vranas promised
 Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett
 bribes for steering lucrative no-bid contracts to them.
(Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
A central figure in the bribery scandal that ensnared the former head of Chicago Public Schools plans to plead guilty to federal charges in October, his attorney said at a hearing Wednesday.
Gary Solomon, co-owner of the SUPES Academy education training firm, has been in plea negotiations with prosecutors and one of his attorneys announced in federal court on Wednesday that negotiations were "99.9 percent there."
Solomon pleaded not guilty last year to multiple counts of wire and mail fraud. His attorneys have previously said that a sticking point in the talks has been CPS' plan to seek restitution equal to triple the amount gained in the fraud. That would conflict with the mandatory restitution sought by prosecutors with any conviction.
A guilty plea would clear the way for sentencing to proceed for Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who was ousted from her chief executive post at CPS amid a federal probe and later pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge.


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