Epic Charter Schools

[Pete]

BTW, the current charges are at the state level.

I know the FBI has been investigating (I spoke to an agent about this back in 2018) as there are issues with the school they operated in California; when money crosses state lines, that is the purview of the Feds. And as reported, the IRS is also conducting an investigation.

There seems to be a very high probability of federal charges being filed as well.


To put this in perspective, the movie Bad Education with Hugh Jackman was based on what was then the largest embezzlement scheme in the history of public schools; $10 million was taken from a New York district. One of the main culprits was sentenced to 4 to 12 years; the other (who fully cooperated) 3 to 9 years.

The number here is at least $22 million.

[Libbymin]

I know that this story has been developing for years and years. Does anyone remember what initiated an investigation into Epic or how any of this story first broke? It's been so long that I honestly can't even remember.

[Pete]

They were founded in 2011 and by 2013, then-governor Fallin asked the OSBI to investigate their enrollment practices.

Epic has been under scrutiny for almost a decade.

[Midtowner]

And in the past, any time they were getting close to being in trouble, they'd dump a million bucks on a political campaign, or uncover dirt on the politicians investigating them and the problem would go away. There has recently been two PACs spending collectively around $1MM to defeat Cyndi Bird in her primary.

There was a special prosecutor appointed to investigate. Both she and the then Attorney General Mike Hunter resigned once it came out that they were having an affiar.

Former State Senator Ron Sharp was critical of Epic and then someone dumped big money into PACs and Shane Jett, a worthless Epic yes man won the primary.

They've had multiple State School Board members replaced with folks who wouldn't ask too many questions. The Governor's office has done a pretty decent job thwarting any sort of dissent.

It is shameful that this is being prosecuted by the Oklahoma County DA and not by the AG's office. I have a sneaking suspicion that Kevin Calvey will win the DA's office and make this thing go away.

[soonerguru]

^^ This really concerns me. Calvey is vindictive, which is not good to have in a DA. Of the two opponents on the Dem side, who has the best chance to defeat Calvey, Behenna or Myles?

[Jeepnokc]

Calvey has said that he will recuse himself from the case if elected This is more political hack work from the DA's office filing these charges the week of the election and then trying to tie Calvey to it so his Assistant DA Geiger would look better. Similar to Hofmeister several years ago and the charges were dismissed 9 months later

[Midtowner]

Calvey has said that he will recuse himself from the case if elected This is more political hack work from the DA's office filing these charges the week of the election and then trying to tie Calvey to it so his Assistant DA Geiger would look better. Similar to Hofmeister several years ago and the charges were dismissed 9 months later

If you think those charges were dismissed because they weren't true, I highly doubt it. The Epic founders, according to the Tulsa World had such sway over state government that before the legislature would even consider any charter school legislation, it had to be personally approved by Ben Harris, co-founder of Epic.

Was there maybe some political bonus points to be made? I don't dispute it. Since Calvey has been so supportive of Epic, he should be tarnished.

And he hasn't said he'd recuse. He said he'd transfer the case to the Attorney General. You know.. the same Attorney General who dropped it just as soon as he was appointed after it was [suspiciously] conveniently discovered that the previous AG, Mike Hunter and the special prosecutor in charge of prosecuting Epic were having an affair. He'd just dismiss it again because he appears to be bought and paid for by Chaney and Harris, so him saying he'd transfer it is the same as saying he'd shut it down. He'd just have his cohort at the AG's office do it for him (again).

Please give your vote to literally anyone other than Calvey. The guy has been a grandstanding clown his entire time in office. He has never tried a criminal case in Oklahoma. He needs to go back to private practice so he can develop those skills before running for the big job.

I would support literally anyone in that race, Republican or Democrat other than Calvey.

And I also really like Behenna and Miles. Miles is married to a lawschool classmate of mine and is just a really decent human being. Behenna's son Michael played on my brother's soccer team. You may recall he was the subject of a UCMJ case where he was convicted of murdering a POW. You may recall the just astounding Brady violation of the Army not informing defense counsel that they had retained and fired a ballistics expert who did the research and backed up the Michael's theory of the case. Trump later pardoned Michael. Behenna was known as a very competent Assistant US Attorney here in the Western District of Oklahoma.

[catcherinthewry]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/la...987726f52.html

Tulsa World doing some good investigative reporting.

[soonerguru]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/la...987726f52.html

Tulsa World doing some good investigative reporting.

It's a shame that Tulsa World wins the SPJ award for Oklahoma literally every year. The Oklahoman only mentions the categories that it wins, but never that Tulsa World wins the big prize year after year. Pretty embarrassing.

[Pete]

Great job by the Tulsa World.

Meanwhile at the Oklahoman... They are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from EPIC for huge ads. They did the same thing with Chesapeake and it took things getting so bad that finally, national press started covering their craziness and only then did shareholders rise up and save what was left of that mess.


I've said it many times: OKC is a great place to run a scam.

[Bunty]

Great job by the Tulsa World.

Meanwhile at the Oklahoman... They are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from EPIC for huge ads. They did the same thing with Chesapeake and it took things getting so bad that finally, national press started covering their craziness and only then did shareholders rise up and save what was left of that mess.


I've said it many times: OKC is a great place to run a scam.

Hopefully, voters will vote out all state legislators and other politicians who have voted to give their approval to the Epic scam. It was good to see that Byrd win overwhelmingly. But Walters as state superintendent still needs to go.

[TheTravellers]

Hopefully, voters will vote out all state legislators and other politicians who have voted to give their approval to the Epic scam. ...

Not likely. Hofmeister apparently accepted donations totaling $52,000 from Epic between 2014-2020, FYI.

[Pete]

Not likely. Hofmeister apparently accepted donations totaling $52,000 from Epic between 2014-2020, FYI.

Directly from that TW article:

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who switched from Republican to Democrat to run for governor, was a top recipient at $52,138.

Hofmeister said Friday she set in motion steps with the Ethics Commission to legally refund back to public schools any campaign donations that may have come from public funds via Epic’s founders.

[Swake]

Directly from that TW article:

She's been after Epic for a long time and She's been no fan of Stitt. Jenks vs Jenks in the governors race.

[Laramie]

Gov. Kevin Stitt was a recipient of $10,800 in campaign donations. His campaign manager, Donelle Harder, said Friday he will donate that amount to Crossover Academy, a private Christian school.

This needs to be refunded back to public schools any campaign donations that may have come from the public: funds via Epic's founders.

Joy Hofmeister said Friday she set in motion steps with the Ethics Commission to legally refund back to public schools any campaign donations that may have come from public funds via Epic’s founders.

This is a big mess. Thank you, Tulsa World...

[Pete]

This whole mess goes to show how a big pot of money can buy influence in politics and the media, at least in Oklahoma.

Worse yet, you can steal money from taxpayers and/or investors and then use those same funds to pay powerful protectors in government and local media. In other words, the stolen money of victims is directly used to prevent them from knowing and/or intervening in the on-going and often escalating theft.

TEEMCO did this as did Aaron Johnson at Farmer's Bank, Relax Park, Chesapeake as well as many others.


I've been preaching about this for years. People are finally starting to understand the consequences of unethical, corrupt local media. These scammers pay local PR firms to manipulate the Oklahoman and others, who serve as useful idiots because they just publish what they are fed without any real fact-checking or research, thereby becoming complicit in the deception.

And it has to be said: All these revenue-driven "best of" lists are huge conflicts of interest when it comes to objective reporting. I know this from my time at the Gazette and from watching a constant stream of awards flowing to companies and people that turn out to be doing terrible things. I put a stop to the 40 under 40 award -- we didn't know these people (other than a form they fill out) and shouldn't be endorsing them; for all I knew, they'd use that credibility to sucker others.

And then various organizations turn around and give awards to 'reporters' and publications. Think about how messed up that is: "We are going to give you an award for providing positive coverage to us." You never see investigative reporters being rewarded by the companies and schemes they expose.

One of the things I never shared in my coverage of TEEMCO: They invented and then paid for the Oil & Gas Awards and then used those awards as a shield of credibility to continue ridiculous scams. At the same time, the Journal Record gave them a Beacon Award for community service and never even bothered to do the most basic research, which would have revealed the honored non-profit didn't even exist! And in fact, their crooked CEO embezzled all the donations.


People like to think that we have all smartened up since the Penn Square Bank debacle but in my direct observation, things haven't changed much at all.

Ask yourself a simple question: If really bad things were happening in OKC, how would we know?

The only way is through watchdog investigative journalism. And the existing legacy media companies have never really done it (even back when they were flush with cash with huge newsrooms) and far worse, now attempt to squash anybody who actually does.

[GoGators]

^^ I could be wrong but I believe that SCOTUS ruling doesn't affect Oklahoma because the Oklahoma Constitution specifically prohibits the appropriation of public money or property for use by private/religious schools. That was not the case for Maine.

[onthestrip]

^^ I could be wrong but I believe that SCOTUS ruling doesn't affect Oklahoma because the Oklahoma Constitution specifically prohibits the appropriation of public money or property for use by private/religious schools. That was not the case for Maine.

I believe thats correct. And its also why school voucher proponents put a state question on the ballot a few years ago to remove this part of the state constitution, the so called Blaine Amendment. Voters pretty soundly rejected it.

[Pete]

There was a hearing on Monday.

I've followed enough white-collar crime cases to know this means there are plea bargain negotiations in progress.

Given the charges and the renewed interest by our new Attorney General (Drummond), I'm sure it's just a matter of how much prison time and the exact amount of restitution for each of the three defendants (Harris, Chaney and Brock); there is no way these guys skate and it's rare cases like this go to trial:

03-20-2023 CTFREE
JUDGE GLIDEWELL: THE DEFENDANTS APPEARANCE EXCUSED WITH ATTORNEY GARY WOOD / AMBER MARTIN. THE STATE APPEARS BY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL JIMMY HARMON. THE PRELIMINARY HEARING CONFERENCE IS CONTINUED TO 5/16/23 AT 9:00 AM BEFORE JUDGE GLIDEWELL FOR FURTHER NEGOTIATION, BY AGREEMENT. DISCOVERY PRODUCTION HAS BEGUN AND IS CONTINUING. STRIKE PHC FOR ALL DEFENDANTS SET ON 3/22/23 AT 9:00 AM. COURT REPORTER WAIVED.

[Midtowner]

There was a hearing on Monday.

I've followed enough white-collar crime cases to know this means there are plea bargain negotiations in progress.

Given the charges and the renewed interest by our new Attorney General (Drummond), I'm sure it's just a matter of how much prison time and the exact amount of restitution for each of the three defendants (Harris, Chaney and Brock); there is no way these guys skate and it's rare cases like this go to trial:

It doesn't necessarily mean anything. I've negotiated enough white collar crime cases to know that this really means nothing other than that potentially, they're kicking the can down the road a bit. Defendants are rarely excited to move things along and the State isn't necessarily interested in turning up the pressure to do anything because they haven't pushed for preliminary hearings nor have they asked the Defendants to waive prelims for further continuances. I wouldn't read much into it at all. It doesn't tell me that the A.G. isn't taking it seriously, I can tell you it's going to be a complicated preliminary hearing.

[Pete]

Drummond has been very public about wanting to prosecute the people involved to the fullest extent of the law.

At least some of this is political as Drummond seems to be attacking Stitt on several fronts, claiming the previous AG was doing Stitt's bidding especially when cases like this and the Swadley's mess at minimum indirectly involved the governor.

It also seems like Drummond is trying to set himself up as a candidate for governor after Stitt reaches his term limit in a few years.

In terms of the slowness, a big part of that was the AG office taking back this case only recently and I'm sure they have been busy trying to get up to speed. And Drummond seems to have a lot riding on the outcome.

Typically what happens in these high-profile cases is that the defendants get hit with an avalanche of charges and then the government hammers them hard to plead down to what still amounts to tough sentences, but better than what they would receive if they wanted to press for exoneration. Only a tiny percentage of these cases ever see a jury trial.

Bottom line: you never want to be a defendant when the state or federal government fully focuses their ample resources against you.

[Midtowner]

I will be very surprised if any of the Epic folks do a day in jail. In Oklahoma, wealthy and influential people do not go to prison for little things like defrauding [allegedly] the government. Expect the Epic principals to express their enthusiastic support for Drummond with Drummond receiving tens, maybe hundreds of thousands in political support from them and for this entire prosecutition to die a quiet death.

I could be wrong, but this is sort of how Oklahoma rolls. These guys are simply too big to jail.

[Pete]

^

In this case, Drummond is smart enough to know that he'll gain much more towards his political ambitions by sending those guys to jail.

That's publicity and esteem no amount of money can buy, and in turn, will yield plenty of campaign contributions.

Plus Epic and everyone else has completely abandoned them and as is always the case, there are others complicit or at least very bad at their job who are happy to cooperate (and even embellish) if it means a convenient scapegoat.


I'll bet you a coke all three of them serve time.

[Midtowner]

^

In this case, Drummond is smart enough to know that he'll gain much more towards his political ambitions by sending those guys to jail.

That's publicity and esteem no amount of money can buy, and in turn, will yield plenty of campaign contributions.


I'll bet you a coke all three of them serve time.

I'll take that bet.

I'm just remembering back to the days of the Oklahoma Industry Authority and associates. I guess that the difference is that back then we had a worthless bootlicking news media who served the interests of the powers that be rather than indifferently reporting the news.

And today, we have some pretty great news sites that no one knows about or reads.

[Pete]

^

It really is a big and important distinction.

Very hard these days to just cover things up or only advance a completely one-sided view of events.

People still try those old tactics (and The Oklahoman is all too often willing to just print their propaganda without the smallest amount of research or challenge) but to me, that is just a sure sign of guilt. Show me someone profiled by the Oklahoman or goes running to them when they fall under scrutiny, and 9 times out of 10 I'll show you a crook. Because those stories originate from someone or their PR agency that is clearly trying to cover something up and it automatically begs the question: Why?

This also happens in hundreds of subtle ways. Like the Alliance leaking the story about the Omni and failing to include -- and knowing they wouldn't be asked -- $65 million in finance charges to be paid by the public. Or when the guys from Convergence run to them for a cheerleading story about their investment and job creation when it's all old information but they want to get in front of people before a decision is made on the order of MAPS 4 projects -- and then lo and behold they end up at the front of the list.

They think they are fooling people when in fact they are merely waving a red flag. I and others can see exactly what is happening and if the people involved aren't already on the radar of those that will keep a close watch, they will be after one of those sickening, manufactured 'stories'. Most of the time that's the genesis of people I track for years before finally publishing something; TEEMCO, Farmers Bank, Relax Park are cases in point and I have about another dozen that I actively track and patiently wait for the time I can actually post hard facts. I see one of those ridiculous articles, quickly check their braggadocious claims and usually can turn up some big inconsistencies with the truth.


When it was Stitt's hand-picked AG I wasn't very confident any of these guys would end up in jail because sometimes there are political institutions that can't be stopped no matter how much light is shined. But even that has seemed to backfire and that's one of the big reasons I have the opinion that I do.