A Memphis-based community activist connected to a bid-rigging scheme involving the former executive director of the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) has been sentenced for his role in the corruption.
Joseph Kyles will spend four months of house arrest after being involved in a criminal operation along with Cerissa Neal, who previously served as one of the state’s education department’s top officials. The case against the corruption was announced back in 2020.
According to the indictment unsealed more than four years ago, Neal, Kyles, David Hunt, and Lambert Martin were accused of scamming the government by making false quotes and altering purchase orders to profit financially. This was done by defrauding the MDE into awarding contracts and purchase orders at inflated prices, directed to the three conspirators and their businesses.
Neal is reported to have divided contracts requiring large sums of money into smaller contracts to award coconspirators without having to undergo a competitive bidding process. She is said to have done this for kickbacks. In the process, Neal gave out an estimated $650,000 in illegal contracts.
Hunt and Martin were initially charged in connection with the scheme, but the Justice Department dismissed the indictments against the two individuals. Kyles, on the other hand, remains under scrutiny but had his charges lessened drastically.
The community activist, doing business as The Kyles Company, received more than $200,000 from the state’s education department as a consultant during Neal’s time in leadership. Authorities found zero evidence proving that Kyles carried out the duties for which he was paid.
Kyles pleaded guilty to engaging in monetary transactions with funds gained from unlawful activity in the summer of 2023. He was initially facing 12 counts in connection with the scheme. That was lessened to one count with the defendant not ordered to face any jail time.
In addition to his four months on house arrest, Kyles will spend two years on probation. Neal, whose trial has been continued, is set to appear in court at a time to be determined.
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