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This story was originally published by Chalkbeat Indiana.
The former CEO of the Tindley charter school network has pleaded guilty to defrauding the network by helping to submit nearly $1 million worth of fake invoices.
In a plea agreement filed last week regarding the federal case against him, Brian Metcalf, who led the charter network from July 2019 through December 2022, pleaded guilty to two of the nine counts of wire fraud outlined in an indictment filed in 2023.
The network runs three Indianapolis charter schools serving roughly 1,000 K-12 students. Metcalf has agreed to pay restitution—but it’s unclear how much the Tindley network will receive.
The indictment alleges that Metcalf worked with two other defendants—Kimberly Maddox and James Darnell Campbell—to submit invoices to the school and another unnamed nonprofit corporation for services that were never delivered. In turn, Metcalf received a portion of the funds, according to the indictment.
In the plea agreement filed last Thursday, Metcalf admitted to working with Maddox and Campbell to defraud the school of a total of $939,800—and admitted that some of that money went to pay his credit card bills, a casino that hosted his family reunion, and a company that fixed his roof. He also admitted to defrauding the nonprofit corporation of $70,900.
Tindley school officials did not respond to a request for comment about Metcalf’s plea deal. Maddox and Campbell have pleaded not guilty to the ongoing federal case against them. Their attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
The plea agreement follows the third renewal of the Tindley network’s oldest existing school by its authorizer, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education. At a renewal hearing in December, school officials said the network had adopted new safeguards to prevent such fraud in the future, including changes to procurement procedures.
“This was a crime of opportunity at the time of a global pandemic that resulted in an unusual amount of emergency funds being dispersed to the school in a very short period of time,” then-Tindley board chair Hilary Buttrick said at the December hearing (Buttrick has since left the position). “However, Tindley has worked extensively with a team of outside professionals to implement and update controls to make every effort to avoid similar incidents in the future.”
Metcalf admits to copying legitimate invoice, using fake address
Metcalf admitted to working with Maddox and another unnamed individual, known as “Individual A” in the plea agreement, to submit invoices to the Tindley network for services that were never provided from around the time he started at Tindley until August 2022, according to the agreement.
He also told the school system that at least one of the services Maddox would provide “was necessary to assist him in his job,” according to the agreement.
In trying to conceal their actions, Metcalf advised that Maddox use the name of another company that Tindley received an invoice from but decided not to employ, according to the agreement.
Metcalf then copied the legitimate company’s invoice template and used similar language from the legitimate invoice to make Maddox’s invoice “look legitimate,” Metcalf admitted in the agreement.
Metcalf also admitted to using a fake address for two invoices for the unnamed Individual A, because he did not want the Tindley network “to become suspicious that Maddox and Individual A were submitting invoices from the same residence.”
These actions ultimately defrauded the school of $539,800, roughly half of which Metcalf received, according to the agreement.
At Metcalf’s direction, Maddox and Individual A also made payments on behalf of Metcalf to his credit card providers, personal loan providers, a mortgage provider, a construction company that fixed his roof, and a casino that hosted his family reunion, the agreement states.
Invoice related to student instruction was fraudulent, Metcalf admits
Metcalf also admitted to working with James Darnell Campbell to submit $400,000 in fraudulent invoices for small-group instruction and a tool that would monitor the attendance, behavior, and academic performance of students.
Metcalf received roughly half of that money through direct payments and through payments Campbell made toward Metcalf’s auto loan and for his mortgage servicer, according to the agreement.
Prior to leading Tindley schools, Metcalf also admitted to defrauding an unnamed school district—known as “School System 2”—of $88,500 through fraudulent invoices to Maddox while he was a principal and a “Network Office” executive there.
Metcalf served as an interim principal in Chicago Public Schools from October 2014 to July 2017, when he was promoted to chief of schools for a subgroup of the district’s schools known as Network 6, according to Chicago Public Schools.
In a statement to Chalkbeat, a district spokesperson did not confirm that CPS is “School System 2.”
Unclear how much restitution Tindley charters will receive
Metcalf acknowledges in his plea agreement that the unnamed nonprofit and Tindley schools are owed a total of $1,010,700 in restitution.
But it’s unclear how much of that money the school will receive—or when. The agreement acknowledges that both Metcalf and any jointly liable co-defendants must make full restitution. The jury trial for Maddox and Campbell is set for Oct. 14.
The prosecution initially sought the forfeiture of a Chicago home listed under Metcalf’s name, but property records indicate that Metcalf sold the home for $285,000 days after the indictment was filed in federal court.
The two counts also carry a maximum of 40 years in prison. Prosecutors have suggested 51 to 63 months of imprisonment, but Metcalf instead is arguing for 33 to 41 months, according to the agreement.
In the network’s December renewal hearing, Tindley Chief Financial Officer Sandra Tresselt said Tindley has adopted new vendor policies and procedures, as well as a new approval process for new vendors and contracts.
Additionally, the chief financial officer now reports to the board’s finance committee instead of the president, Tresselt said.
The school has also provided anti-fraud training for the school leadership team and other staff, and established an independent, anonymous whistleblower hotline for employees, she said.
Chalkbeat Indiana is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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