State Auditor Says Epic Criminal Investigation “Far From Over,” Charges Predict | Politics

“It’s been a long year of fighting these lies,” Byrd said. “The audit was not against charter schools or school choice. It was a government contract and a private company and its two owners who were paid millions for the work the school employees were already doing. “

Additionally, Byrd said his office documented that Harris and Chaney’s company submitted “falsified” monthly invoices for payments from each of Epic’s two schools – Epic One-on-One, a virtual school in the statewide, and Epic Blended Learning Centers, which offer in-person learning courses for students in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties.

“They created 14 categories (of expenses) and submitted the exact same percentages for the whole year,” Byrd said, showing attendees a detailed table of what EYS charged, including hundreds of thousands of dollars for salaries for public school employees, she said. were not employed by the company.

“We also have several questions about why a purely online school needs to spend over $ 600,000 on land rental and construction services,” causing audible gasps from across the room.

This school, Epic One-on-One, was also reportedly billed by EYS for child nutrition expenses, which Byrd questions because students at that school were unable to attend a school lunch program because they learn at home.

Byrd said the questionable financial practices were made possible in part “because David Chaney was both the superintendent and 50% owner of the company and he could sign all purchase order transactions on both sides.”