Sacked Education Department boss Nino Napoli admits to schools funding rort
Sacked Education Department big wig Nino Napoli has admitted crimes linked to the “banker schools” funding rort where millions of dollars was siphoned from Victorian schools.
Police & Courts
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Sacked Education Department big wig Nino Napoli has admitted crimes linked to the “banker schools” funding rort where millions of dollars was siphoned from Victorian schools.
The former director of school resources pleaded guilty to two charges — conspiring to defraud and perverting the course of justice — at Victoria’s County Court on Tuesday.
Other charges, including knowingly deal with proceeds of crime, were struck out in the prosecution plea deal.
His cousin, Carlo Squillacioti, also fronted court alongside him to plead guilty to the same two charges.
The pair were charged in January 2017 after an independent Broad-Based Anti-corruption Commission probe found “serious and systemic corruption” among public officials between 2007 and 2014.
IBAC found he diverted the money from Victorian public schools for his personal gain, taking advantage of “lax” accounting practices in the “banker school” system to secure payments for false and inflated invoices from his relatives’ companies.
The watchdog identified at least $1.9 million in profits that allegedly went to relatives and associates of Napoli.
Napoli was initially charged with 152 offences.
But in June 2018, magistrate Jonathan Klestadt ordered he face a County Court trial on only five charges.
The case, including a trial set down for August last year, had repeatedly been delayed and was again listed for mention on Tuesday, where he was arraigned on the two charges.
His brother, Robert Napoli and sister-in-law Domenica Napoli, were also charged and are awaiting trial.
Napoli and Squillacioti will return to the County Court for a pre-sentence hearing on August 6.
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