Australian Islamic College founder Abdallah Magar and two of his principals have been charged with fraud in relation to $3 million of Government funding.
The Major Fraud Squad laid the charges after an 18-month investigation into offences alleged to have occurred in relation to the management of the AIC schools in Thornlie, Kewdale and Dianella.
It is alleged the colleges defrauded $653,073 from the WA Government and $2,513,087 from the Federal Government from 2005 to 2006.
Mr Magar and the two principals allegedly defrauded State and Federal government student subsidised funding programs by claiming for students who were not attending the colleges.
Mr Magar, 69, of Attadale, was charged today with 10 counts of gaining benefit by fraud for another person and five counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Mark Brian Debowski, 50, of Nedlands, was charged with two counts of gaining benefit by fraud for another person and one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Aziz Magdi, 53, of Alfred Cove, was charged with six counts of gaining benefit by fraud for another person and three counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Police said this morning that the charges resulted from inquiries conducted into material seized from search warrants executed by state police, helped by the Federal Department of Education and Workplace Relations Investigations Unit, at the three colleges on 30 January 2007 and subsequent interviews with witnesses.
The State Government gave the college $4.3 million in per capita grants in 2004-05. The Federal Government provided $13.3 million in 2006 and $11.5 million in 2005.
Education Minister Mark McGowan said that he hoped the Islamic Colleges would stay open.
But Mr McGowan said that new auditing processes had been put in place to ensure that funding was based only on real student numbers as for all private schools.
Mr McGowan said if there were a guilty finding, the WA Government would work with the Commonwealth and “pursue all avenues” to recover the allegedly defrauded money.
“There’s various ways in which we can do that,”” Mr McGowan said.
“We can cut back on future grants. We can seek a repayment from the school. They’re the avenues we’ll adopt if there is a guilty finding.”
He said the future operation of the school would be determined by its school board.
In January last year, police raided the three colleges and Mr Magar’s office in Booragoon in relation to the allegations.
A team of six full time investigators were involved in the investigation, with 200 statements taken, and more than 200 archive boxes, 12 filing cabinets and 15 computers examined.
Both the State Department of Education Services and the Federal Department of Education and Workplace Relations were involved in the investigation.
All three men will appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on July 2, 2008.
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