From the U.S. Attorney:
Former Executive of Chicago-Area Non-Profit Pleads Guilty in $1.8 Million Fraud Scheme
CHICAGO — A former executive of a Chicago-area non-profit organization has pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge for her role in misappropriating $1.8 million intended to support the charity’s work with underprivileged youth.
BARBARA HARRIS served as the Executive Director of the Center for Community Academic Success Partnerships (CCASP), which received government grants and other funds to provide after-school programs to schools in the Chicago area.
The grants included funds from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, a federal program offering financial support for academic enrichment opportunities.
The 21st Century program issued grants to its local administrator, the Illinois State Board of Education, which in turn disbursed the funds to CCASP.
Harris stated in a plea agreement that from 2012 to 2017, she schemed with another CCASP executive, TONY BELL, to submit grant applications that inflated CCASP’s projected annual expenses and falsely claimed that the organization would receive services from five subcontractors.
In reality, Harris knew that the subcontractors, two of which were other non-profit groups run by Harris and Bell, provided no actual services to CCASP.
The fraud scheme resulted in approximately $1.8 million in actual loss to the Illinois Department of Education.
Harris further admitted in the plea agreement that from 2021 to 2023, she participated in a separate fraud scheme that bilked the federally funded AmeriCorps VISTA program, which awarded grants to non-profit organizations working to bring communities out of poverty.
Harris, who at the time of this scheme was serving as Co-Executive Director of the non-profit South Suburban Community Services, submitted grant applications falsely representing that VISTA members would work for SSCS developing programs aimed at bringing economic opportunities to the south suburbs of Chicago.
Harris knew that the VISTA members would actually be used at SSCS to support already-funded job training and afterschool violence prevention programs.
Harris fraudulently obtained approval for eleven VISTA members to work at SSCS, none of whom performed services in accordance with their VISTA assignment descriptions, causing a loss to the VISTA program of $98,699.
Harris, 55, of South Holland, Ill., pleaded guilty on Feb. 27, 2025, to a wire fraud charge, which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood set sentencing for July 11, 2025, at 10:30 a.m.
Harris’s guilty plea was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, John F. Woolley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Midwestern Regional Office, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Ramsey Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago, and Stephen Ravas, Acting Inspector General of the AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General. The Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General provided valuable assistance. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen Totten and Caitlin Walgamuth.
Bell, 64, of Matteson, Ill., has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and wire fraud.
He is awaiting trial. The public is reminded that the indictment against Bell is not evidence of guilt. Bell is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
