PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The co-founders of charter school nonprofit Universal Companies were back in federal court on Tuesday, more than a year after they were acquitted of bribery along with Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson and his wife, consultant Dawn Chavous. They face a tougher case this time, standing trial on separate charges of tax fraud, embezzlement and bribing a Milwaukee school official.
The additional charges against former Universal executives Rahim Islam and Shahied Dawan stem from what prosecutors say are excessive bonuses and expense reimbursements, as well as an alleged bribe, in the form of book purchases to former Milwaukee Board of School Directors President Michael Bonds, who voted in favor of granting Universal a third charter school in the district.
As with the Johnson case, prosecutors must prove that an unrelated transaction was, in fact, a bribe for an official vote that aided Universal. However, in Johnson’s case, he and Chavous pleaded not guilty and fought the charges as co-defendants with Islam and Dawan. This time, Bonds has pleaded guilty and will testify against the men.
The jury heard opening statements on Tuesday, with prosecutors describing a lavish lifestyle of travel, meals and entertainment for former CEO Islam — made possible because former Universal CFO Dawan signed off on Islam’s expense reimbursements and bonus payments.
They also described a scheme in which Universal purchased $10,000 worth of books from Bonds in exchange for his support to open a third Universal charter school in Milwaukee.
The defense opened by attacking Bonds’ motivation for testifying, promised to show the book purchases were genuine and noted that Universal’s request for a third charter school passed the entire board, unanimously.
Yes, they acknowledged, some personal expenses got reimbursed as business expenses — but because of mistakes, not as part of a conspiracy to defraud the company or the IRS. The men earned their bonuses, the defense said.
And the books? They were for a cultural center and had nothing to do with the board president’s long-standing support for Universal charter schools.