Founder of Brooklyn charter school charged with tax fraud

News release from the New York Attorney General's office: Eddie Calderon-Melendez, the founder and former CEO of Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn and Believe High Schools Network, a charter management organization, has been charged with tax fraud and larceny. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman says that Calderon-Melendez received more than $1.4 million in compensation from 2005 to 2010, yet he never filed a tax return and failed to pay more than $70,000 in taxes. Nearly all of Calderon-Melendez’s compensation during that period came from taxpayer-funded charter schools. Calderon-Melendez then attempted to cover up his tax crimes by creating and submitting false New York tax returns, officials allege. Melendez faces 11 felony counts: two counts of Repeated Failure to File Personal Income and Earnings Taxes; two counts of Criminal Tax Fraud in the Third Degree; one count of Criminal Tax Fraud in the Fourth Degree; four counts of Tampering with Physical Evidence; one count of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree; and one count of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.

Also...from The New York Post: The head of a Brooklyn charter school management group collected a fat $500,000 salary, but didn’t pay a dime in income taxes over six years — and even took a lavish $1,800 European jaunt using money intended for public schools.