Although The ECOT MAN, William Lager, Is In Court For Stealing Multiplied Millions From The Taxpayers, He Will Most Likely Avoid Prison And/Or Fines Because Of Who He Bankrolled During His Nearly 2 Decades Of Charter School Business
The state had an agreement with the ECOT MAN that ECOT would report the number of students “enrolled” without any monitoring by the state, beginning about 2001. The agreement was inked even though Lager had to pay back funds ECOT had collected for students not served prior to the agreement. For reasons not made public, the Ohio Department of Education performed an enrollment audit about fifteen years later and found that ECOT had “cooked the books” to the tune of about $60 million in just one year. How could one charter school operator steal $60 million in one year and probably hundreds of millions in a dozen or more previous years back to 2001? Simple. Lager fed the campaign coffers of the roll call of who’s who of Ohio politics–legislators, and other state officials, past and current. He had a bevy of lobbyists and “consultants” on his payroll. Some of those “consultants” had ready access to state officials at the highest level of Ohio government. Lager opened his tax-funded largesse to state officials who did such things as speaking at ECOT commencements. (Fox news guy, Tucker Carlson, picked up a cool $40 grand for speaking at one ECOT commencement!) What did he pay state officials?
In as much as many past and present state officials and operatives aided and abetted the ECOT operation, litigation to collect back funds stolen by Lager will likely linger until the clock runs out. He will likely be cleared of any and all charges of fraud and corruption.
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VOUCHERS HURT OHIO