CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools is suing its former CEO and her former employers, SUPES Academy and Synesi, for $65 million in the wake of a no-bid contract scandal that forced the education chief’s resignation in June.

The Chicago Board of Education filed the lawsuit against for CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and her former employers Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court to seek restitution for more than $23 million in no bid contracts she awarded the companies during her tenure at the helm of the nation’s fourth largest school district, the Chicago Tribune reports.

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“In plain terms, Defendants have stolen money from Plaintiff and the schoolchildren of the City of Chicago, and that money should be returned,” the lawsuit read.

The civil suit comes about five months after Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty in October to a count of wire fraud for her role in the scheme that was allegedly designed to pay the former CEO up to $2.3 million for her influence in steering contracts to SUPES Academy, where she previously worked as a consultant.

Byrd-Bennett stepped down as CEO during a federal grand jury investigation in April and resigned in June as allegations of her role came to light. She was eventually indicted along with Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas, executives SUPES Academy, DNAinfo reports.

In one email discussing the scheme, which gave Byrd-Bennett 10 percent of each contract for “sales services,” the former CEO wrote “I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit. (:,” according to the news site.

The CPS lawsuit alleges Byrd-Bennett and the SUPES executives “have used and are continuing to use public funds fraudulently obtained from Plaintiff to pay multiple law firms to defend them in their efforts to avoid the consequences of their wrongful conduct, to hire lawyers to insist that Defendants’ ability to pay to be kept secret from public scrutiny, and to provide sources of funds to pay criminal penalties as part of hoped-for concessions in plea agreements and sentencing.”

CPS’ new CEO, Forrest Claypool, said the lawsuit is a means to “fight for every dollar our children deserve” and the lawsuit is based on Illinois law that allows for defrauded public entities to recover up to three times what was “fraudulently obtained.”

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According to the Tribune, “That would include salary, pension contributions or other payments CPS made to Byrd-Bennett and her co-conspirators, Claypool said. As a consultant and as CEO for CPS, Byrd-Bennett received almost $870,000, according to the lawsuit. Solomon, Vranas, SUPES and another company, Synesi, were paid a total of $15.5 million, the lawsuit said.”

Anthony Masciopinto, Solomon’s criminal defense attorney, believes the school board is “overreaching” with its demand for $65 million.

“The general proposition that you would take the contract value and times it by three seems extremely aggressive and inappropriate,” he told the Tribune. “The CPS board approved these contracts, the services were provided and were paid for by my client.”

Regardless, CPS is in the midst of a financial crisis and contentious union contract negotiations, and district attorneys will go after every dollar they can get, Claypool said.

“These gentlemen have been in business a long time, all over the country,” he said. “We’re entitled to discover assets, we have various legal tools available to us to track those assets and well will pursue every one of them.”