Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh was sentenced to three years on Thursday for a fraud scheme involving her Healthy Holly children’s book series. Prosecutors said Pugh, who left office in 2016, engaged in a lucrative, years-long scheme in which she sold her self-published children’s books to nonprofits and foundations with business before the city and state for personal gain, netting more than $850,000. Pugh failed to deliver tens of thousands of copies of the books to public schools as she originally claimed she would, and disguised hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks by arranging for bulk sales of the books, authorities said. The 69-year-old asked for mercy during her sentencing hearing and apologized “to anyone I have offended or hurt through my actions.” “No one is more disappointed than me,” Pugh said. “I did turn a blind eye. I did, and sanctioned many things I should not have.”
Read it at Baltimore Sun
