CONTRA COSTA COUNTY – A former Mount Diablo Unified School District employee is accused of using funds earmarked for an after-school program to buy iPads and other electronic devices that he then sold for his own profit, according to authorities.
Eric Rego, 39, of Brentwood and El Dorado Hills, is charged with three counts of mail fraud.
As MDUSD’s after-school program coordinator, Rego oversaw the Collaborative of Academics Recreation Enrichment for Students, or CARES program, according to a grand jury indictment. Among other things, the program provided tutoring, field trips and physical education to students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade.
Starting around July 2020 and continuing through May 2024, Rego purchased $3.3 million worth of iPads, MacBooks, GoPro cameras and other electronic devices through a nonprofit organization contracted to run the program, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges Rego told an employee at the nonprofit organization the devices were needed for students in the program, but he instead kept and resold them.
Rego carried out the scheme by directing the employee to submit monthly invoices with a line-item expense for subcontracts and supplies and to include the cost of the devices in that line-item, according to the indictment. After reviewing and approving the invoices, Rego submitted them to the district for processing and payment.
“By approving the monthly invoices and causing their submission to MDUSD’s fiscal department, Rego represented to MDUSD that the invoices were exclusively for expenses (the nonprofit) incurred from operating the CARES after-school program and for items (the nonprofit) purchased for the program,” the indictment stated.
“But this representation, as Rego well knew, was false,” the indictment continued.
Rego was arrested Tuesday and was set to appear in district court in Sacramento on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. If convicted, Rego faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count of mail fraud.
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