DETROIT – Police believe a former Detroit Public Schools administrator created several companies to bilk the district out of nearly $1.3 million in grant funding for tutoring services for struggling students.

Former director of grant development Carolyn Starkey-Darden, 69, is charged with falsifying documents to secure millions in grant funding for several tutoring companies she created with the help of her husband and daughter – a scheme federal prosecutors allege took place between 2005 and 2012, the Detroit Free Press reports.

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“Ms. Starkey-Darden cheated the students of Detroit Public Schools out of valuable resources by fraudulently billing for her company’s services,” FBI special agent David P. Gelios said. “In fact, Detroit students were cheated twice by this scheme. Students that needed tutoring never received it, and money that could have been spent on other resources was paid to Ms. Starkey-Darden as part of her fraud scheme.”

Investigators allege Starkey-Darden created one company in July 2005, three months before she retired as DPS’ director of Title 1 compliance, which involves distribution of federal funds to the district’s schools.

Four other tutoring companies were set up after her retirement, and police believe she worked with her husband and daughter to change test scores, fake attendance records and forge parental signatures on DPS forms to secure federal funding, The Detroit News reports.

The criminal charges against Starkey-Darden come after the FBI launghed an investigation into three of her companies – Grants-N-Such, MI Learning Unlimited, and Learning Unlimited Companies – in 2011, which resulted in a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in 2014 to seize multiple bank accounts.

According to The Detroit News:

In the 39-page civil complaint … federal prosecutors allege Starkey-Darden ordered the falsification of documents, including inputting false pre-test scores, creating fake individualized learning plans for students, forging parental signatures on monthly attendance records and submitting inflated invoices for unperformed services.

Student progress reports were doctored, FBI agents allege, and Starkey-Darden’s company billed for students who weren’t in class, according to the complaint.

Investigators contend the scheme involved fabricating pre-test scores for students that were much lower than their actual performance to show significant improvement through tutoring that often did not happen. Over the course of six years, police allege Starkey-Darden’s companies took in $6.17 million, of which about $1.3 million was obtained illegally.

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In one email to an employee of a tutoring firm owned by her husband, Starkey-Darden wrote that she “put in some fake scores for a few kids at Denby, just to get their plans approved. When and if we get real ones … just replace what I put in,” according to court records.

“The alleged thievery perpetrated by this individual from 2005-2012 is inexcusable and represents a clear violation of the public trust that has robbed our students and staff of nearly $1.2 million in resources that should have been used for instruction in our classrooms,” DPS Transition Manager Steven Rhodes said in a statement Monday. “Everyone invested in the future of Detroit Public Schools should be outraged by the unlawful actions allegedly committed by this individual.”

Rhodes, who was appointed by the state to oversee the chronically failing district, said he recently reinstated DPS Inspector General Bernadette Kakooza to fully expose “this unacceptable behavior and bring the full force of the law against those who have the audacity to steal from our children.”

Starkey-Darden’s criminal charges follow a different kickback scheme uncovered in March involving more than a dozen former and current DPS principals who allegedly conspired with a school supplies vendor to swindle about $2.7 million. Ten of 13 DPS officials charged in that case, along with the vendor, pleaded guilty and face jail time and restitution, The Detroit News reports.

Starkey-Darden faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for her alleged crimes. Federal officials have already seized nearly $1 million from the former administrator, according to the Free Press.