Mastermind Behind $2.7M Detroit Schools Bribery Scheme Begs for Mercy

DETROIT, MI — Norman Shy, the vendor who lived a life of luxury while swindling schools serving some of Michigan’s poorest children out of millions of dollars, is begging for mercy in a pre-sentencing document filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Attorneys for a former Detroit Public Schools administrator and co-conspirator also asked for leniency.

Shy, of Franklin, the Detroit Public Schools’ vendor at the center of a $2.7 million kickback bribery scheme, and former assistant superintendent Clara Flowers, of Detroit, both pleaded guilty last spring to charges that could send them to prison for years. They will be sentenced Sept. 6 before U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts.

In separate court documents, Shy, 74, and Flowers, 61, cited their age and health concerns, and said they’d admitted wrongdoing and the good they have done in their professional careers should outweigh their crimes.

Shy and Flowers, both of whom were charged with bribery conspiracy and tax evasion, face up to seven and six years in prison, respectively.

In his May guilty plea, Shy admitted that he conspired with 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.

Flowers, who also pleaded guilty in May, admitted that she approved many of the phony invoices and received $324,785 in kickbacks — more than any of the other administrators — to go along with the scheme.

In court filings, defense attorney Christopher Andreoff, wrote that Shy suffered a “character lapse” and should serve no more than three years of his sentence. Twenty-five letters attesting to his character were attached to the filing.

"The defendant, despite his greed-filled actions in the latter years, was an honest, upright businessman for the bulk of his career," Andreoff wrote in a court filing seeking leniency. "There is simply no reason to believe that it is necessary to imprison (Shy) for the time reflected in (his plea deal) in order to protect society.

“On the contrary. his 40-year history of providing service to the DPS and the Detroit community without any previous incidents or allegations of wrongdoing, should be viewed as a positive factor, not a negative one.”

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Andreoff also took exception to what he called preferential treatment given to the principals involved in the scam, who have only been ordered to make restitution for the bribes they accepted, but not for the false invoices they approved.

Shy, who has to pay $2.76 million in restitution to DPS, and another $51,667 in back taxes, lived a life of opulence in Farmington Hills during most of the years he was fraudulently billing the school district.

However, in the government’s sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Buckley argued that Shy doesn’t deserve leniency. The scheme wasn’t “spontaneous” or the “the result of a single bad decision,” but was well-thought out and calculated, occurring over a period of 13 years.

The scheme “was Shy’s brainchild,” Buckley wrote. “He devised the scheme.”

In a separate filing, Flowers’ attorney, Frank Eaman, said Shy convinced her to go along with the scheme.

"Her initial transactions with Shy were legitimate, but at some point, she learned that Shy could help pay for DPS staff training and conferences by paying 'kickbacks' on his orders, some of which were for goods that were not delivered," Flowers' lawyer, Frank Eaman, wrote in a court filing. "Shy convinced Ms. Flowers that these illegitimate dealings were okay because she could use the funds to supplement the school budget and to generate benefits to her staff and students."

Eaman also argued that until the bribery and kickback case, Flowers “has always been a law-abiding citizen, a hard working member of the community and an outstanding educator who has the utmost respect of her colleagues.”

Forty-nine letters from teachers, DPS employees, religious leaders and relatives filed with the court “demonstrate that Ms. Flowers' involvement in the instant offense was an aberration from her honest and good moral character, and the terrible mistake she made in this case should not discount the 38 years of positive work she did for (the) district and her commitment to her staff, children, and parents at DPS,” Eaman said.

“Flowers was a public official, and was entrusted to serve the DPS honestly, with the best interests of DPS’ special needs students in mind,” federal prosecutors wrote. “The spectacle of an assistant superintendent corruptly using her position for her own financial benefit or to manipulate the system does untold damage to the faith of our citizens in the education being provided their children.

“Undoubtedly, many members of the community are wondering how pervasive this type of corruption is in our educational system ... it is important to send a message that this type of conduct will not be tolerated.”

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