Charter School CEO Steals Heaps of Cash from Charter School


Masai Skief, CEO of Harambee Institute of Sciences and Technology Charter School in Overbrook, has pleaded guilty to stealing $88,000 from the school his father founded in the mid-90s.

In 2009, the prosecutor said, Skief shifted $9,000 from a scholarship fund established in his father’s name to a personal account, and then used it as part of a payment on a Philadelphia home. (Property records show Skief bought a three-bedroom West Philadelphia home.) Between July 2010 and August 2012, Skief made dozens of ATM withdrawals of school funds for his own use, Lappen said. He also gave $3,000 to an unnamed relative.

You may remember the name Harambee. It’s the same school which by night would turn its cafeteria into an illegal bar called Damani. [Inquirer]