Federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday that Tim King – who won national acclaim for founding and serving as CEO of Urban Prep Academies on Chicago’s South Side – stole more than $100,000 from the privately run but publicly funded charter school network.
In the newly unsealed grand jury indictment, the office of the U.S. attorney in Chicago accused King of taking a total of $103,833.31 by siphoning money from Urban Prep’s bank account to pay his credit card bills.
King also allegedly tried to obstruct the federal investigation after Urban Prep received subpoenas for records about him in 2022, according to court records.
King’s defense attorney, Christopher Parente, said King denied wrongdoing and expressed confidence that he would be vindicated in court.
“Mr. King is innocent, and he will fight these charges aggressively,” Parente said in a statement.
Parente said the allegations were “fundamentally at odds” with King’s track record of helping Black teens and young men.
King founded Urban Prep in 2002 and basked in positive press. People Magazine once named King its “Hero of the Year.”
But WBEZ first reported in June 2022 that Urban Prep had been quietly mired in such deep financial trouble that Chicago Public Schools officials expressed “grave concerns” about its sustainability.
The charter network has since been in a legal battle to keep its two schools open within CPS – which has the power to authorize, oversee and fund charter schools across the city.
Urban Prep once looked at expanding across the country but struggled to make payroll and was operating on credit cards, “predatory loans” and cash advances from the school district, according to a 2022 CPS memo.
King resigned as CEO in August 2022, after a CPS inspector general’s report alleged that King had inappropriate sexual conduct with a student. King has denied those allegations and criticized CPS officials for trying to take action against Urban Prep.
But by then, court records show, the feds were looking at King. WBEZ reported last year that federal prosecutors launched a probe into Urban Prep in 2022 and had sought a wide range of documents regarding King.
When the federal investigation became known publicly, Urban Prep officials defended King, saying, “We do not believe that any current or former Urban Prep employee has engaged in financial improprieties.”
On Wednesday, King’s successors leading Urban Prep declined to comment on the allegations against him but said in a statement on “today’s unfortunate news” that King’s vision for an all-male charter school “has had a lasting impact.”
Prosecutors say King diverted more than $54,000 from an Urban Prep bank account to pay charges on his American Express card in 2021, and the following year he allegedly misappropriated more than $49,000 from the school in the same manner.
Soon after Urban Prep received a subpoena in 2022, authorities say King accessed the software used by the charter operator to track fundraising and deleted some records “with the intent to impede, obstruct and influence the investigation.”
Court documents show the investigation involved the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education and the IRS.
Other records obtained by WBEZ show the feds became involved soon after the CPS inspector general’s office expressed deep frustration to the charter operator’s lawyers because Urban Prep officials did not provide requested records. The inspector general’s office had sent Urban Prep a broad request for documents in early 2022.
But King’s lawyer said Wednesday he had given, not taken from the schools he once led.
“Over the past 25 years, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to
build and sustain Urban Prep, including by writing personal checks to ensure the organization met its payroll obligations,” Parente said. “The claim that he would steal from an institution he poured himself into creating is both false and absurd.”
Under King, Urban Prep boasted that 100% of its mostly-Black male student body had been accepted at colleges.
Chicago’s school board has tried to revoke Urban Prep’s ability to run schools in CPS and take over its charter schools. But Urban Prep sued CPS and a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled in the charter network’s favor.
Two campuses, in Bronzeville and Englewood, remain open for about 200 students. A decade ago, Urban Prep had three campuses with more than 1,300 students.
Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter for WBEZ.
WBEZ education reporter Sarah Karp and Sun-Times federal courts reporter Jon Seidel contributed to this story.