Second player in CPS contract scandal pleads guilty

Another defendant in the SUPES scandal that ousted Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has admitted his guilt Tuesday in the multimillion-dollar kickback scheme that was captured in damning emails.

Vranas tried to delete some of those emails once he realized investigators began probing, but failed to destroy them for good. "Everybody sucks and is greedy," he wrote in one spelling out just how much money Barbara Byrd-Bennett would get for steering an eventual $23 million in CPS contracts to SUPES and other education companies Vranas owned with Gary Solomon.

Named last fall in a 23-count indictment with Byrd-Bennett and Solomon, Vranas, 35, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery before U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang. The charge carries a maximum of five years in prison, but prosecutors say if Vranas continues to cooperate, they will recommend that sentence be knocked down by a third. They also will drop the other charges against him.

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