© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

St. Louis Charter School Founder Sentenced To Prison

The founder of a defunct St. Louis charter school has been sentenced to 366 days in prison and ordered to repay $2.4 million in state money he obtained by inflating student attendance numbers.

Michael Malone, 44, was sentenced Friday for two counts of wire fraud for reporting incorrect attendance figures for the St. Louis Prep Charter School. He had pleaded guilty to those charges in August. Malone used the money to pay school expenses, and in the process he siphoned funding away from public schools.

In his guilty plea, Malone said he inflated student attendance numbers by 10,044 hours in the 2016-2017 school year. The school closed in 2019.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.