Posted on 09/16/2005 8:13:31 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - A former education official was accused in a lawsuit of using his post to secretly buy almost 46,000 textbooks and other teaching aids he himself had written, bringing him nearly $1 million in royalties.
The suit by the Los Angeles Unified School District also said Matthias Vheru illegally covered more than $3 million of the $4 million cost by using federal education funds that had been earmarked for programs that assist non-native English speakers.
The district said Vheru, 55, skirted its purchase-approval process by making the orders when he was temporarily serving as the district's math curriculum director last year.
Kevin Reed, an attorney for the district, said the orders by Vheru "were signed by his own hand. He bought those books without anyone knowing about it."
Vheru's attorney, David Baum, disputed the accusations, saying his client had notified district officials that he was the books' author and that he had been told by others to buy them with restricted federal funds.
"He did everything he could to make the district aware of what was going on and gave them the opportunity to stop the sale, and nobody said squat," Baum said.
State law prevents public employees from benefiting financially from business contracts they order. District Inspector General Jerry Thornton said in a report that he referred the case to federal prosecutors.
The suit, which came to light Thursday after Thornton's report was submitted to school board members, also names Vheru's wife, who had taught math in the district. Both resigned in April.
The district said it has tightened oversight of book purchases, including requiring high-level approval of orders of more than $100,000.
"There weren't sufficient checks in place," Superintendent Roy Romer said.
The textbooks, aimed at helping students learn state-required algebra, were approved for state use earlier this month.
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On the Net:
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us
Keeps his bloated pension even if convicted of a minor (jay walking like) offence, I bet.
Nothing new. How many of you had college courses where the required reading was someing the professor had written (at about $50 per book)?
They should have their creditentials revoked, and then tarred & feathered in the local square.
This guy isn't related to Jim Wright is he??????????????????????????????????????????????
My kid just bought his college texts for 5 classes. $522.85. And some of them were used. The new ones aren't available on ebay yet. To prize goes to the $178 Chemistry book and manual.
Check and see if any were written by his instructors. Curious.
When I was enrolled, the ration was approx one "scam" textbook per 30 hours [scam meaning being forced to buy a book my teacher wrote]
And to think that in the private sector, I get grilled on any expense report over $25 that isn't well documented.
I don't disagree with you that scam type behavior exists, especially with questionable books, but if a professor wrote a real textbook that is used by hundreds of other professors to teach the same course, it would be silly for him not to use his own book.
Not only that but they revise them almost every year now so you can't buy used.
ping
LOL
Leni
A former education official was accused in a lawsuit of using his post to secretly buy almost 46,000 textbooks and other teaching aids he himself had written, bringing him nearly $1 million in royalties.
It's good to be king.
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