Someone has some serious explaining to do.
Dozens of laptops mysteriously went missing, laptops which were purchased with taxpayer dollars. A former Prime Prep contractor came forth and revealed how he was directed and paid off to sell hundreds of the laptops, meant for students.
Solomon Warner, a maintenance contractor for the charter school told Dallas’ New 8 just what happened to the computers.
“We sold the laptops to three or four different people that I know,” Warner said. “They were sold about two weeks after school opened up. I sold between 200 and 250 for about $220 apiece.”
Warner said he was paid $100 total to sell the laptop computers, one of which he told us we could find at a liquor store in Dallas. He took us to the shop, and after a quick conversation with one of the employees, they produced the laptop in question.
To make sure, we powered the computer up in hopes we could find evidence of this being one of the missing Prime Prep laptops, paid for by taxpayer funds.
When it powered up, the welcome page opened to the words “Prime” and “Student.” Another clue was revealed on the password page, which read “PRIME.”
While we were unable to log in, News 8 has provided the computer’s serial number to new administrators at Prime Prep Academy who have conducted their own audit, trying to determine exactly how many other computers may be missing from one of the two Prime Prep campuses.
An audit conducted pinpointed that the amount of money lost from the theft is significant, and since a criminal complaint has been filed.
Co-founder and former CEO of the Academy D.L. Wallace is looking like the biggest suspect in the investigation. News 8 reached out to Wallace for comment on the audit findings, only to receive no response.
Wallace resigned as CEO last November, and as of Tuesday afternoon both he and his wife refused to relinquish their access to Prime Prep’s bank account. Later that night Prime Prep’s Board of Directors convened to vote to remove Wallace’s access to the school’s account.
The Texas Board of Education will also get involved in the on-going investigation.