Joel Pourier, the former executive director of a shuttered Indian charter school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was charged with embezzling more than $1.38 million.

Authorities said Pourier, 39, wrote fraudulent checks and took funds from the bank account of the Oh Day Aki/Heart of the Earth. Meanwhile, students were going without key services.

"People ask me, 'Why did they close the school?'" former principal Darlene Leiding told The Minneapolis Star Tribune. "It was one man who did all this."

Authorities said Pourier used the money houses, cars and strip clubs. He reportedly told people he was receiving per capita payments from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, which was not the case, and he reportedly lied about his academic and professional credentials.

Get the Story:
Minneapolis charter school director allegedly embezzled $1.38 million (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 6/2)
Ex-official charged with taking $1.3M (The St. Paul Pioneer Press 6/2)

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