ST. LOUIS • The chairman of a defunct St. Louis charter school looted more than $250,000 of public money from the school to use for his side business and reaped as much as $150,000 from a no-show job with the St. Louis treasurer's office, federal officials said Tuesday.
Fred W. Robinson, 69, was arrested Tuesday morning on a Sept. 8 indictment charging him with one count of wire fraud and seven felony counts of federal program theft.
On the courthouse steps after his release on $20,000 unsecured bond, Robinson denied the accusations. "Let me say this. The allegations were unfounded," he told reporters.
"People don't go to jail on manufactured evidence," he told a Post-Dispatch photographer. "Lies have a way of working themselves out, like the lies on this," he said, shaking his indictment and court paperwork.
That 14-page indictment, unsealed after Robinson's arrest, says that Robinson, board chairman of the now-defunct Paideia Academy, persuaded other board members to approve a resolution in April 2009 lending up to $150,000 to open Little People's Academy day care. He never told fellow members that he was a partner in Paige C. Investments LLC, the day care's owner. The company was run out of his house, the indictment says, with a friend of Robinson's, who was also a bartender at a lounge favored by Robinson.
In October 2010, after Paideia lost its charter with the state to operate, Robinson "executed a purported Paideia Board resolution" authorizing an additional $50,000 for the day care, without the knowledge of other board members, the indictment says.
In all, Robinson spent $257,033 in federal and state education funds to buy a building at 4028 West Florissant Avenue and two adjacent vacant lots in north St. Louis and to renovate and repair the building, the indictment says.
Robinson said that the day care never opened because the building was never finished.
The second part of the indictment accuses Robinson of submitting false time sheets to the treasurer's office and being paid for the false hours that he recorded.
Prosecutors allege that Robinson "earned" roughly $35,360 per year for the five years from 2006 through 2010.
"That would be real nice," a sarcastic Robinson said. He said he worked in security at the treasurer's office, checking parking meters for possible theft, making sure that meters were working and that drivers were paying to park on lots.
He said he worked eight hours for the city and used the rest of his time for Paideia and the architecture firm he owns. He also said he did not receive insurance and had an arrangement similar to an independent contractor.
"I have the wherewithal in my gray matter to do that," he said in response to questions about how he worked a full-time city job and still helped run Paideia.
Treasurer Larry Williams and staffers, including Robinson's direct supervisor, did not return messages seeking comment or respond to a set of written questions about his work there.
In January, the Post-Dispatch requested payroll records for all city treasurer employees. The office refused to release the records without first checking "the accuracy and reliability" of the payroll data. In addition, it insisted on charging the Post-Dispatch $414, despite the fact that the city's Information Technology division would have produced the data.
According to paperwork filed by the school to the Missouri secretary of state, Williams served as a member of Paideia's governing board from 2004 through 2009.
"He was on the board because he was a 40-year friend and brought expertise that was needed at the time," Robinson said.
Robinson has worked at the treasurer's office for about 20 years, according to city records. He is still listed as a staff member, making $17 an hour.
In court, Robinson questioned U.S. Magistrate Judge Nannette Baker about bond conditions that prevented contact with victims or witnesses and asking whether he could continue to contact Paideia Corp. members. Robinson said it was still an "ongoing business."
He said the corporation still received mail concerning bills and unemployment benefits. "When the school closed down, that did not stop the business of the corporation," he said.
Brenda Pruitt-Johnson, who served as Paideia's executive director and oversaw spending, declined to comment on the arrest when contacted by phone. "I don't wish to have any phone conversations about it," she said.
The Missouri Charter Public School Association issued a statement 'strongly condemning" the alleged actions, and that they are not reflective of all charter schools and their governing boards. "Schools entrusted with state and federal dollars should be held to high standards of accountability to assure that these funds reach their intended target, the students in the school's classrooms," the statement said.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said in a statement that it was "keenly aware of the problems that charter schools can incur when financial stability is at risk but is limited in its ability to intervene. As a result, the Department is seeking greater fiscal accountability of charter schools through administrative or legislative remedies."
Paideia opened in 2001 as St. Louis Charter Academies. Its organizers — including current lieutenant governor and then-state Sen. Peter Kinder and several pastors — vowed to open four tuition-free private schools for 3,000 children who wanted an alternative to the city's failing public schools.
Two campuses opened that fall. Eventually the school became Paideia Academy, which operated as a charter school at 5223 North 20th Street and at 7604 Michigan Avenue.
From the beginning, Paideia was rife with infighting and poor test scores. In 2010, the school ranked among the four worst charter schools in the city based on standardized test scores. In most grades, less than 10 percent of students tested proficient in reading or math.
Robinson served as the charter school's board chairman from 2005 until 2010, when Paideia closed.
In June of that year, after years of academic failure, Missouri University of Science and Technology dropped its sponsorship of the school. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shortly thereafter did not renew the school's charter, which Paideia needed to draw public funds.
The day it closed, Paideia still had $454,000 in the bank — money intended for such things as teacher salaries, school lunches, transportation and special education. State officials in early 2011 said they were uncertain what happened to the money. Robinson declined to answer a reporter's questions at the time about the leftover funds, insisting there was no missing money.
In addition to the criminal charges, prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of any illegal proceeds as well as the forfeiture of three of the properties in north St. Louis tied to the day care.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who is handling the case, declined to comment on the charges but did say that the investigation is ongoing.
Robinson is not the first to be accused of crimes at a St. Louis charter school.
In 2006, William Dent, the board president of Thurgood Marshall Academy, was convicted of stealing more than $7,000 from the school before it closed, including $800 in school lunch money.
Thurgood Marshall, on Goodfellow Boulevard, closed in 2005.
J.B. Forbes and David Hunn of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
