A former Atlanta Public Schools technology director has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly receiving kickbacks from a company that was awarded an APS contract.
Jerome Oberlton, who served as chief APS information officer from 2004 to 2007, and Mahendra Patel, who allegedly assisted Oberlton in the scheme, face charges of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud, wire fraud and bribery.
Efforts to reach Oberlton on Monday were unsuccessful. Marietta attorney David S. West, who represents Patel, an information technology consultant, said the allegations cover conduct dating seven years ago. “Obviously, we’re disappointed it’s taken so long for this to come out,” he said.
Patel lived in the same neighborhood as Oberlton, who approached Patel to find someone to put in a bid on an APS contract, West said. “He assisted Mr. Oberlton in getting the bid placed. We believe very confidently anything Mr. Patel earned he declared at the time as income with the government.”
The indictment alleges that, beginning in April 2006, Oberlton and Patel met with two unnamed co-conspirators in Detroit and told them they needed to pay kickbacks if they wanted to win a contract for a data warehousing project. After the vendor won the contract, the officials sent checks totaling more than $60,000 to Oberlton and Patel, the indictment said.
Oberlton and Patel “corruptly” provided influence, assistance and favorable treatment to the vendors in exchange for bribes, the indictment alleged. The vendor, identified only as Company A in the indictment, was awarded more than $700,000 in APS project work.
Oberlton also allegedly concealed from APS his ownership of Global Technology Partners and Global Technology Services, corporations to which the bribes were paid, the indictment said.
Oberlton resigned his position at APS in late July 2007. A month later, Global Technology Services began sending the vendor invoices for consulting services for the data warehousing project, the indictment said. From November 2007 until April 2008, the vendor sent checks to Oberlton’s company, the indictment alleged.
Reuben McDaniel, chairman of the Atlanta Board of Education, said APS has restructured its technology department.
“From an ethics perspective, we have tightened all of our processes and procedures to make sure all of those things don’t happen again,” McDaniel said.
After leaving APS, Oberlton worked as CEO and president of Global Technology Services before joining Baltimore City Schools in 2011. In January, he began working for the Dallas Independent School District.
After Oberlton recently told Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles about the federal investigation, Miles immediately requested and received Oberlton’s resignation, the superintendent said in a statement.
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