A former Illinois public faculty meals service director for an impoverished Chicago-area district has been sentenced to 9 years in jail after stealing $1.5 million in rooster wings from the county.
Vera Liddell, 66, labored for Harvey College District 152 for over a decade.
“The huge fraud started on the peak of COVID throughout a time when college students weren’t allowed to be bodily current in class,” reads a proffer at Liddell’s bond listening to, based on a report from native station WGN9. “Despite the fact that the kids had been studying remotely, the varsity district continued to supply meals for the scholars that their households may decide up.”
The prosecution accused Lindell of ordering 11,000 instances of rooster wings with the district’s cash and choosing them up in a county van.
“The meals was by no means dropped at the varsity or supplied to the scholars,” the courtroom doc defined.
The doc didn’t clarify what occurred to the wings after Lindell took them.
“The scheme was uncovered by the district’s enterprise supervisor throughout a routine mid-year audit. The supervisor discovered the district was $300,000 over its annual meals service finances regardless of solely being midway by way of the varsity 12 months, based on prosecutors,” the native information report explains.
“She found particular person invoices signed by Liddell for enormous portions of rooster wings, an merchandise that was by no means served to college students as a result of they comprise bones,” prosecutors defined.
Lindell pleaded responsible on August 9 and was handed a nine-year jail sentence.