A Former Detroit Public School Official and a Former Employee Sentenced

A former payroll manager of the Detroit Public Schools (“DPS”) was sentenced today to 24 months in prison as a result of her guilty plea to conspiring with a retired DPS employee to fraudulently obtain money from the DPS, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent In Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Robert Bobb, Detroit Public Schools’ Emergency Financial Manager.

Sentenced today was Toni D. Gilbert, 46, of Detroit, by United States District Judge John Corbett O’Meara. Judge O’Meara also ordered Gilbert to pay restitution in the amount of $672,762.00. Co-defendant Anton V. Carter, 56, of Detroit was sentenced on August 10, 2010 to six months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $378,765.00. Both will serve a three-year term of supervised release once their custodial sentence has been served.

According to court records, the fraud from DPS, an agency receiving federal funding, occurred between 2000 and 2005. During that time, Gilbert, worked as a payroll manager for DPS, with authority to issue payroll checks. According to the guilty pleas, during the term of the conspiracy, Gilbert issued regular DPS payroll checks to codefendant Carter, totaling $378,765, after Carter had retired from DPS due to a disability for which he was receiving disability checks from DPS. In addition, at her guilty plea, Gilbert acknowledged inappropriately issuing paychecks to other deceased DPS employees during the same time period.

United States Attorney Barbara McQuade said, “Stealing money from our schools, when our school system is already financially strapped, robs our children of their future.”

McQuade offered special thanks the Detroit Public Schools for its cooperation and strong efforts to weed out corruption from within its own institution.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.