FORMER NEW ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL PLEADS GUILTY TO EMBEZZLING $1.3 MILLION+

Ruben Vives - LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/ewzC2V

December 15, 2010 |  9:27 pm - The former principal of NEW Academy Canoga Park charter school has pleaded guilty to embezzlement, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement Wednesday.

Edward Peter Fiszer, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement by a public officer and admitted that the dollar-value exceeded $1.3 million, the statement said. Fiszer was immediately sentenced to five years in state prison by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Judith Champagne and  ordered to pay $1,428,485.15 in restitution to the school.

Prosecutors said Fiszer embezzled more than $1.4 million between 2008 and 2009 by obtaining nearly two dozen cashier's checks from school accounts and depositing them in an Ameritrade account to trade stocks. He was removed as principal in November 2009 after the theft was discovered.

Fiszer was arrested Oct. 4 in West Windsor, N.J., and brought back to Los Angeles by officers investigating the case, the statement said.