Leader of textbook theft scheme involving LAUSD, others gets prison time

It was a textbook case of stealing from the poor. Literally.

Corey Frederick, 44, hatched a scheme to steal thousands of textbooks from cash-strapped local school districts so that he could sell them to distributors.

Starting in May 2008, Frederick recruited librarians, office technicians and warehouse supervisors -- a dozen in total -- from the Los Angeles, Inglewood, Lynwood and Bellflower school districts.

Over two years, he paid them more than $200,000 in bribes so they would steal textbooks in economics, physics, anatomy, literature and language arts, prosecutors said.

Through his Doorkeeper Textz bookselling business in Long Beach, Frederick resold the stolen books to distributors including Amazon, Seattle-based distributor Bookbyte and Illinois-based Follett Educational Services, according to a Grand Jury indictment that was returned in 2013.

When the investigation into the textbook scheme was announced that year, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey described Frederick’s scheme as a “web of deceit at our children’s expense.”

Frederick and 12 other school district employees were charged in the 37-count indictment, and prosecutors said that all but one charged in the years-long embezzlement probe have been convicted.

Frederick pleaded no contest on Tuesday to multiple counts of embezzlement and bribery, authorities said.

After entering his plea, he was sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison by L.A. County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry, according to the district attorney’s office.

Frederick was also ordered to pay more than $793,000 in restitution to the L.A. Unified School District, prosecutors said.

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