CHARTER SCHOOL FRAUD TRIAL BEGINS

The Pensacola News Journal is reporting the trial has begun for an Ohio businessman accused of helping defraud 14 Florida schools – including three in Escambia County – of almost a million dollars in public funding. Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar said Steven Kunkemoeller would use shell companies to buy school supplies and equipment, then conspired with Marcus May – the principal owner of Newpoint Charter Schools – to resell them to the schools at exorbitant markups. Steven Kunkemoeller is charged with racketeering and first-degree organized fraud.