The Corona-Norco Unified School District has received $1.1 million from its insurance company to cover some of the more than $2 million that prosecutors say former Assistant Superintendent Ted Eugene Rozzi embezzled from the district.
A state audit estimated that $2.6 million was taken from 2002 to 2017 by Rozzi, who was the facilities director until his 2017 resignation.
District spokeswoman Evita Tapia-Gonzalez said officials will seek additional reimbursement from the insurer after the criminal case concludes.
Rozzi, of Redlands, is accused of conspiring with Ladera Ranch resident Edward Curtis Mierau, the CEO of Ontario contractor Neff Construction.
Prosecutors allege that Rozzi had Mierau send him checks ostensibly to front cash to pay for school projects. But those checks, instead of going to the district, instead wound up paying Rozzi’s personal credit card bills, prosecutors said.
Mierau’s attorney, Rod Pacheco, has said it is common for school districts to ask construction contractors to pay vendors for items such as landscaping or portable classrooms and then reimburse the contractors.
It’s unclear how the district didn’t realize the money was missing, but the audit faulted the district for a lack of oversight. Before Rozzi resigned, the head of facilities reported only to the superintendent. Since then, other layers of accountability have been added.
Both men are due in Superior Court in Riverside on Sept. 4 to enter pleas. Neither is in custody.
Rozzi has been charged with misappropriation of public funds, money laundering and being a public official having a financial interest in a contract made by him. Mierau has been charged with the first two crimes and helping Rozzi profit from the contracts.
Their passports were seized and their real estate assets frozen.
In December, the Riverside County Office of Education announced that it planned to commission an audit of the district’s financial practices. The audit was scheduled to begin in March but then was put off because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tapia-Gonzalez said. The audit is now expected to be completed in mid-September, she said.
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August 29, 2020 at 07:56AM
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Corona-Norco school district receives $1.1 million for embezzlement case - Press-Enterprise
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