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Schrenko pleads guilty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko pleaded guilty this morning to defrauding the government and money laundering.
She has been sentenced to eight years in prison and is waiving her right to appeal. She faced a maximum 25 years on the charges.
Part of her sentence requires her to participate with the government in the prosecution of her co-defendants, A. Stephan Botes and Peter Steyn, and hand over any evidence against them. She will also be required to make full restitution, regardless of her finances.
Schrenko has also agreed to make a full accounting of her assets, which include a 1999 Toyota.
A formal sentencing hearing will be held later.
Schrenko and her attorney, Pete Theodicion, left the courtroom without comment.
During the sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper asked her if she was under a doctor’s care and if she was taking any medication.
Schrenko laughed.
“A long list of things,” she said, explaining that she is taking 12 to15 different medications, including drugs for sleep apnea, narcolepsy, a heart condition and a back problem, circulatory and pulmonary problems and osteoporosis. She is also taking anti-depressants and a tranquilizer, she said.
Schrenko said she’d been seeing a psychiatrist since 2003 “when all of this came up.”
Cooper asked her if she understood that she would not be paroled. Schrenko said she did.
Schrenko was on trial with Botes, a computer millionaire and South African national, and Steyn, his former chief operating officer, for a conspiracy to defraud the government of $600,000 in federal education funds earmarked for deaf and honors students.
Schrenko, a suburban Augusta educator who was Georgia’s school chief from 1995 to 2003, was accused of diverting about half the money to her failed 2002 gubernatorial campaign and using $9,300 for a face lift.
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