A book buyer involved in a massive scheme to steal thousands of textbooks from four local school districts pleaded no contest Tuesday and was immediately sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry also ordered Corey Frederick, 44, of Los Angeles, to pay more than $793,000 in restitution to the Los Angeles Unified School District following his plea to four felony counts of embezzlement and one felony count of bribing a public officer, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Frederick — a book buyer and seller who operated Doorkeeper Textz in Long Beach — paid out more than $200,000 in bribes to a dozen school employees in the Los Angeles, Inglewood, Lynwood and Bellflower school districts over a two-year period beginning in May 2008, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Frederick paid school employees from $600 to $47,000 to steal textbooks in literature and language arts, economics, physics, anatomy and physiology, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Frederick was indicted — along with 12 employees of the school districts — in August 2013 by a grand jury. All but one of the co-defendants have been convicted.
