UpDated: Ex-Detroit School Vendor Gets 5 Years, Administrator Gets 3 Years in $2.7M Kickback Scheme

Updated. DETROIT, MI — Clara Flowers, a former assistant superintendent for Detroit Public Schools, was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in a $2.7 million bribery and kickback scheme. Flowers had previously admitted in federal court that she swindled disabled students out of school supplies and used $324,785 to put a new roof and gutters on her home.

She could have gone to prison for six years, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Our earlier story: Norman Shy, the mastermind behind a $2.7 million bribery and kickback scheme with 13 Detroit Public Schools administrators, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison on fraud and tax evasion charges, according to media reports.

Shy, 74, of Franklin, earlier cited his age, ailing health and previous good works in a plea for mercy, but U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said it was important to send a message about the effect the millionaire vendor’s crimes had on Detroit Public Schools, where some of the state’s poorest students attend school.

Shy did get a sentencing break, the Detroit Free Press reported. The sentence represented a compromise between the 70 to 87 months federal prosecutors asked for and the 30 to 36 month sentence Shy’s attorney, Christopher Andreoff, sought.

Arguing for the longer sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Michael Buckley called Shy a “killer of dreams” and a “thief of hope” in the financially struggling school district.

The sentence came amid reports another 22 DPS former and current administrators may have participated in schemes similar to the one Shy orchestrated, The Detroit News reported.

“Many vendors now stand in the shoes of Norman Shy,” Roberts said. “They, too, may be tempted to enrich themselves at the expense of our children.”

The sentence is “not just for Norman Shy,” Roberts said. “It is for the community he was called to serve.”

In his May guilty plea, Shy admitted that he conspired with former assistant superintendent Clara Flowers and 12 current and former principals from 2002 to 2015 to certify and submit his bogus invoices for school supplies that were never delivered.

Shy billed the financially struggling school district $5 million during the period, of which $2.7 was for school supplies that were never delivered, federal prosecutors said.

See Also

• 13 Detroit School Administrators Stole $1M: Feds
• Ellen DeGeneres Reveals $500K Surprise for Detroit School
• Ellen’s $500K Gift to Detroit School Still On Despite Bribery Scandal
• Key Figure in DPS Corruption Lived Large in Farmington Hills
• Vendor in School $2.7M Corruption Case Pleads Guilty
• Mastermind Behind $2.7M Detroit Public Schools Bribery Scheme Pleads for Mercy

Shy’s attorney wrote in a court filing seeking leniency that Shy suffered a “character lapse” and, “despite his greed-filled actions in the latter years, was an honest, upright businessman for the bulk of his career.”

Roberts said she did take those arguments into consideration, as well as Shy’s age and health, but emphasized the importance of sending a strong message to other vendors that corruption can’t be tolerated in Detroit Public Schools.

Shy admitted during the sentencing hearing that he “made a horrible mistake for getting involved in this conspiracy” and tried to set things right by paying back taxes to the IRS.”

Andreoff, his attorney, said Shy was ashamed for his actions, but also placed blame on his co-conspirators, saying the fraud wouldn’t have occurred if they had not breached their duty as school officials.

Flowers, who pleaded guilty to accepting $325,000 in kickbacks for helping to submit invoices for supplies that were never delivered to special education students, was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday as well. Flowers could go to prison for almost six years.

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