A former Illinois, Chicago school employee has been sentenced to nine years in prison after she stole $1.5 million (Ksh. 193 million) worth of chicken wings from the district during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From July 2020 to February 2022, Vera Liddell, 68, ordered over 11,000 cases of chicken wings from the school district’s food provider, Gordon Food Services, and picked them up in a district cargo van. She spent 10 years as the food service director at Harvey School District 152.
Despite the fact that students were learning remotely during the pandemic, the school district still provided meals for families that could pick up.
Liddell’s job involved placing orders with Gordon Food Services, a main supplier for the school district, prosecutors said, according to ABC News.
She placed the orders and did the billing but kept the chicken wings between July 2020 and February 2022, prosecutors said.
She pleaded guilty on Aug. 9 to the charges and got a nine-year prison sentence.
“The massive fraud began at the height of COVID during a time when students were not allowed to be physically present in school,” read a proffer presented at Liddell’s bond hearing in 2023.
“Even though the children were learning remotely, the school district continued to provide meals for the students that their families could pick up.”
According to ABC News, the chicken theft operation was discovered in 2023 when an audit found that the district’s food service department exceeded its annual budget by $300,000 (Ksh. 38 million) halfway through the school year.
The business manager for the district then found the invoices for the chicken wings, which was odd because it is a food item that wouldn’t be served to students because they contain bones.
Court records show that they were familiar with the former Harvey employee “due to the massive amount of chicken wings she would purchase.”
When Liddell’s schemes were unveiled, she was charged with theft and operating a criminal enterprise last January.
