The chief executive of one of Philadelphia’s oldest charter schools has admitted stealing $88,000 from the school, including donations to a college-scholarship fund launched in his father’s memory.
As he pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, Masai Skief also acknowledged that he lied to investigators and coaxed others to do the same while the FBI examined the finances of the Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School.
Mr. Skief, 32, is the son of John Skief, who founded the institute in 1976 as an “educational hub” during a strike, and two decades later opened the charter school.