Vera Liddellteacher and food service director for Harvey School District 152, Chicago, carried out a plan that resulted in the theft of 11 thousand boxes of chicken wings.
During the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemicthe American woman devised a fraudulent scheme that lasted 19 monthsfrom July 2020 to February 2022, which took advantage of the school continuing to provide meals to its students’ families despite its facilities being closed.
Liddell, taking advantage of her position as food service director, placed massive orders for chicken wings worth a cumulative $1.5 million that never reached the hands of the school’s students.
Through its primary supplier, Gordon Food Service, the Chicago-based He sorted the products and collected them using district vehicles.
However, It was ensured that these foods never reached the school facilities and were diverted for other purposes that, to date, remain unknown.
After several months of defrauding Harvey School District 152, Vera Liddell’s fraudulent scheme began to unravel when a mid-school year audit revealed irregularities in the budget allocated to food services.
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The annual budget was US$300 thousand above the forecast, despite the fact that only half of the school year had been completed at this educational establishment.
The irregularities present in the food budget led the school authorities to carry out a deeper investigation, which revealed the multiple fraudulent purchase orders that had been signed by Liddell for massive quantities of chicken wings.
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Vera Liddell, as a result of this multi-million dollar robbery, was arrested in January 2023 and faced several charges that included “theft, forgery and operation of a continuing criminal enterprise.”
After several months of trial, The teacher was sentenced to nine years in prison in August 2023 due to the magnitude of the fraud which he committed by stealing chicken wings during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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