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Lindberg v. California Dep't of Education10/31/2005
from traditional educational institutions to private, nonprofit entities known as community-based organizations, or CBO's. These CBO's were well connected with certain members of the state Legislature known as the Hispanic caucus.
Robert Cervantes was hired by CDE in 1977, and served mostly as assistant superintendent. In May 1995, he was appointed to the Youth, Adult and Alternative Education Services Division (YAAES) and put in charge of the ESL-Citizenship program. When he was hired, Eastin told him she wanted him to do two things: clean up the place, and keep the Hispanic caucus "off back."
When Cervantes inherited the ESL-Citizenship program, it was "a mess." He learned from the previous director that there were problems with vendors and lack of documentation. Cervantes eventually reached the conclusion that certain CBO's were obtaining money fraudulently. In his 25 years of working for the CDE, he had never seen such corruption and blatant fraud. One staff member told him the state was literally "throwing money" away.
Cervantes established a fraud fighting system to ensure that CBO's were complying with federal regulations. He enlisted J. Alan Kates, a certified fraud examiner and audit specialist working concurrently for CDE and the FBI, to train his consultants in tracking down potential fraud by the CBO's.
Lindberg began working for CDE in 1971 and became an adult education consultant in 1976. He worked in the Adult Education division, doing monitor reviews. In 1995, he became a field consultant, performing compliance reviews in connection with the ESL-Citizenship program. His job was to monitor the CBO's for compliance with regulations entitling them to federal funds.
Castillo Adult School
In November 1995, Lindberg, with Kates's assistance, reviewed Castillo Adult School (Castillo). In visiting the school, he found two letters from legislators to CDE urging funding for Castillo, something he had never seen before. He also found numerous irregularities.
When Lindberg confronted Romalia Castillo with his findings, she told him that she was a politically influential person because she was registering voters for Eastin and President Clinton. She threatened to contact Eastin and say that Lindberg was harassing her.
Believing that fraud was afoot, Lindberg reported his findings to his supervisor and Cervantes. Lindberg also refused to sign off on funding Castillo for 1995-96. Nevertheless, the CDE funded Castillo that year. The next year, however, Castillo was defunded by Cervantes, on Kates's recommendation, because it falsely represented itself to be a nonprofit organization.
Colegio de Amnistia
Lindberg made three visits to Colegio de Amnistia (Colegio). The listed address for the school turned out to be a real estate office, and no classes were being held there. Lindberg suspected fraud.
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