CPS Want $10 Million From Disgraced Ex-CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett

By Mae Rice in News on Jan 27, 2016 7:11PM

Chicago Public Schools’ current chief wants his predecessor, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, to pay the city $10 million as a penalty for her participation in a kickback scheme when she held his role, the Sun-Times reports.

Public schools chief Forrest Claypool is pushing for Byrd-Bennett to pay the city more than triple the salary that CPS paid her and the kickbacks she planned to, but never actually did, receive.

There's a legal underpinning for this: a state law lets governments fine corrupt employees triple the amount the employees were paid.

$10 million would be triple the following three figures, according to the Sun-Times:

* The $893,000 Byrd-Bennett got in total salary and benefits over her three-year tenure as CPS CEO
* The $2.3 million kickback she was expecting from a no-bid contract with her former employer, SUPES Academy
* The $300,000 CPS has spent on outside legal fees related to the Byrd-Bennett’s case to date
* Unspecified compensation for internal staff time spent on the case

“It’s our responsibility to do everything possible to recover money rightfully meant to educate our children that, instead, went to line the pockets of a criminal,” Claypool told the Sun-Times. “We are aggressively pursuing every dollar we’re entitled to under the fraud statute and will be aggressively litigating to get every dollar.”

Byrd-Bennett is already facing up to 7.5 years of jail time.