An online school closed abruptly in June, and now the founder of that school and her friend face embezzlement charges.
The Paris Academy was accused of inflating enrollment numbers back in late June.
Criminal charges have now been authorized.
Paris Academy operated out of a building in Saginaw Township. Shortly after the school was closed, the founder Nancy Paris, told ABC12 she had done nothing wrong.
"I think that this was politically motivated, and there were people in powerful positions that did not want this model to continue," Paris stated in September.
But these criminal charges indicate the Michigan State Police and the Saginaw County prosecutor's office disagree.
Three embezzlement charges, including one for more than $100,000, have been issued against the 47-year-old Paris. She also faces a conducting a criminal enterprise charge, which is a twenty year felony.
Also charged in the case is her friend, 46-year-old Jeffrey Machiela, who faces two additional firearm related charges, including felon with a firearm.
The complaint shows that Paris and Machiela share the same address.
The Paris Academy began operations in 2016 and Paris claims the academy had clean audits. The school receives per pupil funding from the state just like a traditional public school, but she says the state recently created new rules for cyber schools. She claimed her last student count in 2017-18 was 715 students, but the state did an audit and showed it only had 562.
That would mean the cyber school received $1.1 million more than it was allowed.
The criminal complaint claims the accused converted Paris Academy money for their own use, but its not clear if the charges are related to the possibility the school was using fake students to inflate its numbers.
We could not Paris or Machiela for comment and as of late Tuesday afternoon, both had not been arraigned as of yet.
Embezzlement charges were issued against the founder of an online charter school with offices in Saginaw and Grand Rapids after Michigan State Police launched an investigation into fraudulent practices.
Nancy E. Paris, founder of the Paris Academy, was charged with two counts of embezzlement of $50,000 to $100,000, a count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more, and a count of running a criminal enterprise.
Jeffrey L. Machiela, Paris' live-in boyfriend, was arraigned on the same charges as well as counts of felony firearms and felon in possession of a firearm.
Authorities issued warrants for the duo on Jan. 14. Both appeared for arraignment in Saginaw County District Court on Jan. 18.
Paris and Machiela turned themselves in after speaking with their attorneys, Kaiser said.
The academy informed parents on June 29 that the school, which had a board office in Saginaw Township, was closing.
According to Kaiser, the school was allegedly receiving money from the state for students who were not attending the school.
“Allegedly, the school had a large number of people signed up, but they didn’t attend the school,” Kaiser previously said in an interview. “They were receiving a very large sum of money from the state.”
Prosecutors allege the couple embezzled more than $800,000 in total.
Paris used money from the Department of Education for personal use, prosecutors allege. Machiela had been hired for construction and maintenance work, most of which was never completed.
The school was authorized by the Genesee School District, but was dissolved after the launch of the investigation. The K-12 charter school also opened an office in Grand Rapids in 2016.
Paris and Machiela both received personal recognizance bonds with GPS monitoring, according to public court records.
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