Former Obama Adviser Pleads Guilty to Stealing Hundreds of Thousands from Schools

A former member of the Obama White House has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from a network of charter schools he helped to found.

“Seth Andrew, a former White House adviser, admitted today to devising a scheme to steal from the very same schools he helped create. Andrew now faces time in federal prison for abusing his position and robbing those he promised to help,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Friday, according to a Justice Department news release.

Andrew pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud before United States District Judge John P. Cronan, in Manhattan federal court. He will be sentenced on April 14 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

In 2005, Andrew helped found “School Network-1,” a group of New York City charter schools. In 2013, he moved to the U.S. Department of Education and later to the Obama White House as a senior adviser in the Office of Educational Technology.

Although in January 2017 he ended his affiliation with School Network-1, in March 2019 Andrew withdrew money from escrow accounts the school network had been required to maintain — and which were supposed to be accessed only if the school dissolved.

He is accused of closing two escrow accounts that totaled just over $140,000, getting checks for the money that was in those accounts, then opening an account at another bank. The Justice Department said he misrepresented himself as “a ‘Key Executive with Control of’ School Network-1 Charter School and supported that misrepresentation with emails” sent to an employee of the bank.

Once that account opened, he deposited the two checks he had secured by closing the escrow accounts.