A Manhasset man who ran preschool and special education programs for New York City children copped a plea on Friday to defrauding taxpayers out of millions of dollars in government funds.
Cheon Park, whose company, Bilingual SEIT, received $94.5 million in federal, state and city funds to serve students in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn from 2005 until 2012, faces up to five years and three months of prison after pleading guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of mail fraud.
The feds say he deliberately lied in fiscal reports by inflating the amount of money he paid to some of his employees and contractors and also fibbed about the type of work they did. The move, the feds say, boosted the pot of public funds the company received — with more than half of the money being kicked back to Park.
Park also illegally used taxpayer funds to hand out no-show jobs to his ex-wife and ex-sister-in-law, have Bilingual SEIT pay for tutoring for his children, and have a company staffer clean his home twice a week, authorities say.
As part of the plea agreement, Park, 46, has also agreed to pay $2.15 million in restitution to the city’s Department of Education and forfeit another $1.92 million he pocketed to the feds. He will be sentenced on July 29.