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White Plains Teacher Pleads Guilty To $2.3M Tutor Scam

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A White Plains man pleaded guilty in federal court this week to taking more than $2.3 million in federal grants for tutoring services that were never provided, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Thursday.

Michael Logan, of White Plains, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government and the U.S. Department of Education.

Michael Logan, of White Plains, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government and the U.S. Department of Education.

Photo Credit: Contributed

Michael Logan, 48, managed TestQuest's tutoring services for the Monroe Academy of Business and Law, and Global Enterprise High School in the Bronx. From 2005 to 2012, he forced employees to forge student signatures by collecting them from students in the cafeteria or at baseball and basketball practice. If they couldn't find them, Logan told his employees to sing them in.

Those employees then submitted bills to the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) for tutoring services that had never happened.

“The federal government devotes important resources to a program intended to benefit students in need, and not intended to be manipulated by people like Michael Logan for their own benefit," Bharara said. "To make matters worse, rather than focusing on the instruction of children, Logan focused on instructing witnesses to lie. With his guilty plea today, he will now face the consequences of his shameful exploitation of this vitally important program.”

After learning that TestQuest, which is now defunct, was being investigated, Logan encouraged employees to lie about teaching classes, once telling a witness to lie about teaching classes that happened when he and the witness were actually coaching after-school sports.

Logan pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government and the U.S. Department of Education.

He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 9, 2013 by Judge Keenan.

Separate charges in a civil complaint against Logan and TestQuest are pending.

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