Chicago-area executives sentenced in school-fraud case

CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge has handed prison terms to father-and-son executives of two suburban Chicago tutoring firms in an $11 million scheme aimed at schools nationwide between 2008 and 2012.

Chicago's U.S. attorney's office says in a Monday statement that Jowhar Soultanali was given a six-year sentence. His son, Kabir Kassam, got five years and ten months.

The scheme involved bribes to some school authorities, including a paid outing to a gentleman's club.

Prosecutors say the men inflated invoices for tutoring work never done. In all, their companies, Niles-based Brilliance Academy and Babbage Net School, received $33 million from dozens of schools, including several in Illinois.

Both the 62-year-old father, of Morton Grove, and the 38-year-old son, of Wheeling, pleaded guilty earlier to mail fraud. They were sentenced Friday.