SC education official stole $90K in school money and went on shopping sprees, AG says
A former education official pleaded guilty to scamming a Midlands school district and agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in restitution, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office said.
Some of the stolen money was used on personal shopping sprees for exotic items that had a dubious connection to childhood education, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a news release.
Vivian “Libby” Campbell DuBose, formerly director of the Child Early Reading Development Program of the Sumter County School District, pleaded guilty Friday to state grand jury charges of accepting rebates and extra compensation, in addition to misconduct in office, Wilson said.
Judge DeAndrea Benjamin ordered DuBose to serve concurrent seven-year prison sentences on the charges, but both were suspended upon the service of five years’ probation, according to the release.
As another part of her punishment, DuBose must pay $80,000 restitution to the Sumter County School District, the Attorney General’s Office said.
On Nov. 14, 2018, DuBose was indicted on multiple counts of embezzlement and public corruption. As a part of a plea bargain, she agreed not to contest the felony charge on accepting rebates and extra compensation, according to the release.
DuBose admitted that while she was director, she requested and accepted extra compensation at a rate of $125 per hour, in addition to her regular salary, the Attorney General’s Office said. The extra fees were for professional development training sessions DuBose falsely claimed to have conducted, according to the release.
In her confession to the felony charge, what DuBose said she really did was run a scheme in which she directed an assistant to duplicate time sheets submitted by another subordinate employee, to which DuBose’s information was then superimposed, Wilson’s office said.
While pleading guilty to the misconduct in office charge, DuBose also admitted to using school district money to buy more than $10,000 worth of consumer goods, according to the release. The items were bought under the guise of being school district property, but were really for DuBose’s personal use.
DuBose went shopping at Wayfair, Staples, and K-Mart to buy things such as adult tricycles, AppleTVs, Keurig coffee machines, carports, hammocks, furniture, vacuums, griddles, NuWave brand ovens, slow cookers, fryers, and NutriBullet brand blenders, according to the release. The items had “dubious value to early childhood education,” the Attorney General’s Office said.
DuBose admitted to attempting to return the items after South Carolina authorities inquired about their purpose and location, the Attorney General’s Office said.
“Stealing from our schools will not be tolerated. This is an unfortunate example of greed and opportunity causing a public servant to go from having a fine career to becoming a felon,” Wilson said in the release.
