Politics, Americas

FETO schools in US state collect $60M in taxpayer money

Newspaper investigation exposes deep ties of some New Jersey charter schools with FETO terror network

16.02.2017 - Update : 16.02.2017
FETO schools in US state collect $60M in taxpayer money

By Betul Yuruk and Sorwar Alam

NEW YORK

A group of charter schools in the U.S. state of New Jersey affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) last year collected tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, according to an investigative report published by a local daily Wednesday.

The investigation conducted by The Record newspaper and its website, NorthJersey.com, revealed that some founders of these schools have close ties to the FETO network, led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish expatriate living in neighboring Pennsylvania whose extradition is being sought by Ankara for allegedly masterminding last year’s deadly coup attempt in Turkey.

It found that seven schools in the state have collected over “$60 million in taxpayer money last year alone to fund their growth”.

Some of these charter schools belong to Turkish immigrants influenced by Gulen, it added.

“There are also political donors who collectively have furnished hundreds of thousands in donations to U.S. office-holders while the North Jersey charter schools in general have been adept at wooing state and local government officials with trips to Turkey and, in some cases, jobs,” said the story.

In a wide-ranging study of the FETO-linked institutions, reporters found that the schools have also been a channel for state taxpayer money to private entities that serve the schools as landlords or vendors, including a boarding school in the Wayne Township “that is openly Gulen inspired.”

In a kind of shell game, the FETO schools would also pay firms for service or rent, but these firms were also connected to FETO, the paper reported. And state taxpayer money supported this arrangement.

“It’s clear these schools were being used both to raise funds for Gulen and employ Gulen followers and teachers and basically have them tie a percent of their income back to Gulen,” Robert Amsterdam, a London-based lawyer hired by Ankara who is investigating FETO-linked charter schools in the U.S., told the paper.

Political influence

The investigation also said the schools have been used as tools to influence civic and political leaders in the U.S.

“A number of prominent Turkish nationals connected to the charters or their vendors have emerged as fundraisers and contributors to Hillary Clinton and [then-U.S. President Barack] Obama, among other political leaders,” said the article.

For instance, Furkan Kosar, former head of the FETO-linked Science and Technology charter in Paterson, New Jersey and current head of the Council of Turkic American Associations, raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s 2012 re-election bid.

By reviewing state records, websites, resumes, and tax forms of people linked with the schools’ administration, the investigation also found deep connections between school leaders and Gulen sympathizers.

The story also claimed that the schools organized special tours to Turkey in order to get support for the Gulen network.

It looked into a number of schools -- including the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School, Passaic Arts & Science Charter School, Paterson Arts and Science Charter School, Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology, Thomas Edison Energy Smart School, Central Jersey College Prep, and Hudson Arts and Science Charter School -- giving evidence of the schools’ close ties with the Gulen network.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has touted charter schools, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s new education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is an outspoken advocate of the charter school movement.

Following a pattern

The paper’s revelations appear to follow a pattern of controversy and misdeeds by FETO schools in the United States.

"Mr. Gulen has been brilliant in seizing on the charter school mechanism, which in the U.S. is unregulated," lawyer Amsterdam told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview last August.

Last March, ahead of legal action against FETO school networks in the U.S., Amsterdam told reporters, "We have compared states audits of the Gulen schools which have occurred in a number of states in the United States. And these record loose internal controls, periodic insolvency, funds spent on immigration feeds in the hundreds of thousands of dollars which do not in any way benefit the children, inappropriate use of public funds, inappropriate commingling funds, use of shell entities to funnel public funds from schools to shells."

And last July 12 -- just days before the coup attempt in Turkey -- Amsterdam's law firm filed a fraud complaint against a FETO school network in Texas, accusing it of "widespread abuse of the H1B visa program, misappropriation of public funds, and discrimination against certain students and families."

Network and coup attempt

Since 1999 Fetullah Gulen has been living in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, about 10 miles from the New Jersey border, in self-imposed exile.

He managed to establish a huge network of charter schools, NGOs, charity foundation and other institutions across the world, including over 100 in the U.S. alone.

Gulen and his FETO terror network are accused of masterminding the deadly coup attempt in Turkey last July.

At least 248 people were martyred and nearly 2,200 others were injured in the July 15 failed military coup.

Gulen is also accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions -- including the military, police, judiciary, and educational institutions -- forming what is commonly known as the “parallel state”.

Turkey has officially submitted to the U.S. evidence that Gulen’s network established a quasi-state within Turkey in an attempt to topple the government and ultimately take over the country in a bloody coup.

Turkish authorities have also issued an official request for Gulen’s extradition under a 1979 treaty between Turkey and the U.S.

Ankara has also urged governments abroad to shutter local FETO network schools, saying they do not want FETO institutions to undermine the rule of law in other countries the way they tried to do so in Turkey.

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