Let’s remember when Silas Potter plead guilty to 36 counts of theft against Seattle Public Schools, on this day in 2013 (April 8)

This is an amazing grift: Silas Potter, a former manager with Seattle Public Schools, raised the very legitimate issue that the district wasn’t working with enough (minority-owned) firms and he just happened to have a couple of such firms where the district could very easily divert money.

As KUOW reported at the time:

After his re-arrest on Saturday, former Seattle Public Schools official Silas Potter pleaded guilty Monday to 36 counts of theft for directing $168,275 in school district funds to a dummy company he controlled.

Potter was head of two offices at the district, the Regional Small Business Development Program and the Small Works Roster Program, that awarded contracts to small businesses and nonprofit organizations. But in 2011, state auditors found that two of the companies that received contracts from the district, Grace of Mercy and Emerald City Cleaning, performed little to no work, and that the money ended up with Potter and two associates.

The P-I added some more context:

Potter, who ran a $1.8 million contractor-outreach program for the district, embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars before state auditors caught on to the thefts. While the ensuing scandal cost the Seattle Schools superintendent and the district’s chief financial officer their jobs, only Potter and two alleged accomplices were criminally charged.

Eight months after a damning report by the state Auditor’s Office, King County prosecutors charged the Potter alongside alleged conspirators David Anthony Johnson and Lorrie Kay Sorensen with stealing $250,000 from the Seattle schools program meant to encourage small firms to bid on district projects.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Tricky sentenced Potter to the minimum term. Sorensen, who pleaded guilty previously, was sentenced Friday to 60 days in jail and ordered to pay $83,429 in restitution.

Truly amazing.