A former substitute teacher was sentenced to two years behind bars Wednesday for masterminding a long-running tutoring scam that overbilled the Department of Education for hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds.
Michael Logan, 50, of The Bronx, was also ordered by Manhattan federal Judge John Keenan to forfeit $250,000. Logan pleaded guilty in June to recruiting former students to help in his scheme, hiring them as “aides” for after-school tutoring in The Bronx at the Monroe and Columbus high schools, which racked up $2.3 million in bills between 2005 and 2012.
But instead of helping disadvantaged students boost their grades, Logan had them round up signatures from kids at sports practices and other after-school activities to falsify attendance sheets for the now-defunct TestQuest tutoring company, the feds say. The government then wound up shelling out funds for tutoring services never provided.
TestQuest has separately agreed to pay the government $1.7 million after settling a lawsuit claiming the company and Logan bilked the feds.