Juan Cabrera, current El Paso Independent School District superintendent, and former school board member, Dori Fenenbock, are being accused of defrauding millions of dollars from investors in an a California based online school they were trying to launch.

According to a KFOX, Cabrera and Fenenbock presented themselves as co-founders of an online school called eSchool Prep.

That is an important distinction because according to Cabrera's current contract which runs through 2024, he can offer "consulting" services as long as he isn't paid for them. The lawsuit claims that Cabrera "promised to resign from his role as superintendent" and secure a $5 million investment in eSchool Prep. The investors made their $5 million investment but were forced out of the deal and only paid a settlement of $483,000. The investors say Cabrera and Fenenbock won't return their original $5 million dollars nor will they say where the money went.

Back in 2018, the El Paso Times did a bombshell report about the alleged scheme between Cabrera and Fenenbock to start the online school. It got, admittedly, very little press, but if you read the story here, you will find out that almost none of the EPISD board of trustees knew that Cabrera was working with Fenenbock and one or two only found out about his role as "consultant" when Cabrera found out that the Times was going to break the story in print. Cabrera and Fenenbock's response regarding the lawsuit once they become available.

Neither Cabrera nor Fenenbock would comment on the KFOX story today, and EPISD said they wouldn't comment either because the lawsuit is considered a personal matter.

Juan Cabrera makes $348,000.00 a year as Superintendent of EPISD. As per his contract he is allowed to “participate in consulting and speaking engagements" as long as those activities don't interfere with the duties he has with the district and the ones he is getting paid for by taxpayers.

His contract is written in a way that gives no concrete definition of what "interference of his duties or a conflict with EPISD business" would be, but I gotta say, I'm not too thrilled with the idea of our Superintendent not only working on a possibly competing school system but also being accused of defrauding people out of millions of dollars. It looks horrible for EPISD and it smears El Paso.

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