Norman Shy (screen shot photo from WDIV video)
Norman Shy (screen shot photo from WDIV video)
Norman Shy, 74, the evil, central figure in the Detroit Public Schools' $2.7 million bribery and kickback scandal, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Detroit. He was ordered to pay $2,768,846.23 in restitution and will likely face between five to seven years in prison under his plea agreement, the Detroit News reports.
Shy, a resident of Franklin, and a graduate of Detroit's Mumford High School, was a vendor who created phony invoices for school supplies and equipment he never delivered to the district in a scam that ran from 2002 to 2015. Twelve principals and and administrator were charged with signing those invoices in exchange for kickbacks that, in all, totaled $908,518.
The government contends Shy, who owned Allstate Sales, fraudulently made $2.7 million in the scheme and used some of that money for kickbacks.
Jennifer Chambers of the Detroit News reports that Shy told U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts:
“I paid school officials monies and other things of value for their assistance."
Shy confirmed that the conspiracy involved the 13 school officials charged, the News reports. But when asked if the scheme went beyond those people, he said:
“There may have been others. I don’t recall."
Shy pleaded guilty to two felony charges: conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, a five-year felony, and income tax invasion, also a five-year felony.
Several people in the scheme have already pleaded guilty or have hammered out guilty pleas.