COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — When Chicago State University posted a part-time job on its website last year, the South Side school was flooded with applications.
Some 3,200 people sent in applications trying to get the campus job in the Roseland neighborhood, an area sorely in need of jobs.
Instead, the woman who posted the job, Lashondra Peebles, hired her own mother for the post — and paid her thousands of dollars even though she never showed up for work on campus, authorities charged Thursday.
Peebles, who was fired last year after an internal investigation, was hit with charges of official misconduct, theft by deception, wire fraud, computer fraud and more. Prosecutors also say she illegally funneled school money to a family friend.
Prosecutors called it a "ghost payroll" scam and noted that Peebles essentially created the job and never told anyone the woman she hired was her mother.
According to prosecutors, Peebles, 43, posted the part-time job on the university's website in early 2014. Despite receiving more than 3,200 applications, Peebles hired her mother, 65-year-old Shirley Kyle.
Kyle filled out employment paperwork on March 3, 2014, but never set foot on campus or reported to her job, prosecutors said. She allegedly received six paychecks totaling $4,450, prosecutors said.
“This was a bold and brazen scheme that defrauded not only Chicago State, but all of the students that attend this university,” Cook County State’s Attorney Alvarez said in a statement Thursday. “At a time when public funding for our colleges and universities is stretched to the limit, a crime like this is even more reprehensible.”
Kyle, meanwhile, has been charged with accepting payment for work that was never performed and theft by deception/school.
Both women were scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
In addition to hiring her mother, Peebles is accused of steering an unauthorized university consulting contract to a family friend, prosecutors said.
At the time of the alleged crimes, Peebles worked as Chicago State University's director of compliance, prosecutors said. She also served as interim vice president for enrollment management.
In early 2014, Peebles allegedly asked a superior whether the university could hire a consulting company called PMO501, which was owned by a family friend of Peebles. According to Alvarez's office, the request was denied because the school didn't need the services.
Still, on April 21, 2014, Peebles used a Chicago State credit card to pay the consulting firm $4,748 through PayPal, prosecutors said. Peebles was not authorized to use the card, and she paid the firm in two smaller installments of $2,700 and $2,048. According to university policy, prosecutors said, payments over $3,000 require authorized approval.
Peebles is accused of manipulating computer software to obtain approval for the PMO501 contract, prosecutors said. She also allegedly appeared on campus during a medical leave to obtain approval through the school's legal department. Prosecutors said she did not have authority to do so.
Neither Peebles nor Kyle has any criminal background, Alvarez's office said.
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