Former Obama White House adviser arrested for allegedly stealing over $200,000 from charter schools he founded

A former White House senior adviser for the Obama administration who helped found a network of charter schools is accused of allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the schools and attempting to launder the funds in order to get a lower interest rate on a mortgage for a Manhattan apartment, according to federal prosecutors.

Seth Andrew was charged by prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York with wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a bank. Prosecutors say Andrew helped create a network of charter schools based in New York City in 2005, and left the network in 2013 for a job at the US Department of Education, and later became a senior adviser in the Office of Educational Technology at the White House, where he continued to be paid by the charter school network. Prosecutors say Andrew left his role in the White House in November 2016 and cut ties with the school network in January 2017.