The head of a troubled Brooklyn charter 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, authorities charged yesterday.
The investigation of former Believe High Schools Network CEO Eddie Calderon-Melendez — sparked last year after inquiries by the Post — revealed that he raked in more than $1.4 million between 2005 and 2010 while allegedly cheating the state of more than $70,000 in tax payments.
Calderon-Melendez was indicted this afternoon on 11 felony charges that include tax fraud, grand larceny and evidence tampering — which stemmed from allegedly false tax returns he filed after a probe began.
“He compounded his crime by creating false evidence to throw investigators of his trail,” said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Calderon-Melendez’s questionable financial practices were first exposed last May when The Post reported that his network had charged the Williamsburg Charter HS an exorbitant $2.3 million in management fees.
He had founded Williamsburg Charter HS in 2003, opened two more charter high schools in the same neighborhood in 2009 — and then promoted himself to CEO of a network that ordered the three schools to pay sky-high fees for support services.
As head of the network, Calderon-Melendez took in more than $500,000 in 2009, according to Schneiderman — a relatively hefty take-home for the director a network that was overseeing just three schools.
He accepted a pay-cut the following year, but still took in at least $378,000.
Under his guidance, the Williamsburg Charter HS entered into an untenable $79 million, 30-year lease — shelling out more than $2 million annually — and paid consultants more than $750,000 in a single year.
While cash was freely gushing from the school spigot, teachers were asked to sweep hallways and empty garbage cans themselves because there wasn’t enough money to hire custodians.
Roughly 20 staffers cut from the school last year.
Since then, two of the three schools under his management had their charters revoked because of their sloppy finances and poor management.
Calderon-Melendez could not immediately be reached for comment.