PHOENIX (3TV / CBS 5) – Former Arizona Department of Education study principal and school principal accused of depositing federal grant money into personal accounts and using fake documents to do so, according to the Arizona Auditor General.
Dennis Fiscus is the former director of studies at the Arizona Department of Education and Lois Lamer is the former director of the Valley Academy for Career and Technical Education.
Fiscus and Lamer were indicted on September 14 after reports showed that between December 2013 and June 2014, Lamer created three fake documents with Fiscus approval to secure additional funding for the district. With Fiscus’ approval, Lamer deposited $ 7,500 in federal grants that were supposed to go to the district into his personal account, the AAG said. She then combined the grant money with her own personal account and wrote checks payable to Fiscus, according to the Arizona Auditor General.
Lamer opened a personal account and from 2010 to 2015 issued 18 checks to Fiscus, totaling more than $ 10,000, investigators said. There were also sections that indicated that checks were used for travel related expenses.
According to the investigation report, VACTE should have received $ 120,000 due to the small number of students and schools. However, Fiscus approved VACTE to receive more than $ 460,000, authorities said. The department had to reimburse the US Department of Education over $ 420,000.
Lamer and Fiscus have both been charged with five counts of embezzlement of public funds and fraudulent schemes.
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