New federal charges link former Milwaukee Public Schools Board President Michael Bonds to a company whose top officers face almost two dozen charges for bribery, theft, embezzlement and other crimes.
Several people in Philadelphia were charged Wednesday in connection to Universal Companies, including Rahim Islam and Shahid Dawan.
The charges include racketeering conspiracy and related crimes including bribery, honest services fraud, multiple counts of wire fraud, and tax offenses. Through open records requests, the I-Team viewed dozens of emails related to Universal Charter Schools, who abandoned its Milwaukee charter schools mid-year in 2017.
Most of the emails between Universal and Milwaukee Public Schools involved Islam or Dawan.
After the schools closed in 2017, Marquette Professor Joe Wall helped the I-Team discover red flags with Universal's finances.
In spring 2019 Bonds was charged with taking bribes allowing Universal to expand, educating more Milwaukee students, despite known financial issues. The U.S. Attorney's office said last year Bonds acted to "defraud and deprive the citizens of Milwaukee."
Islam and Dawan face hundreds of years in prison and millions of dollars in fines should they be convicted as charged. Bonds is scheduled for sentencing in March of this year after pleading guilty to his charges.
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