Appeals court upholds restitution for ex-Indiana school exec

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A federal appeals court has upheld an order requiring a former western Indiana school administrator to repay more than $110,000 to the district.

Franklin Fennell is the Vigo County School Corp.'s former director of facilities and transportation. The Terre Haute man received a two-year prison sentence for his role in a kickback scheme in which proceeds from inflated or fraudulent invoices were pocketed.

Fennell was also ordered to pay the district $110,600 in restitution. He had asked the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to review that order, arguing that the U.S. Probation Office should have performed an independent accounting of the district's actual loss.

But the Tribune-Star reports that the appeal court found that it was fair to determine the restitution using the government's chart created for Fennell's trial.

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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com