A federal jury convicted a former District of Columbia Public Schools contract specialist Tuesday on charges of bribery and wire fraud. She faces up to 15 years in prison.

From June 2019 to at least August 2023, Dana Garnett took payments from vendors trying to sell goods and services to the school system, according to court documents. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said that in exchange for money, Garnett ensured DCPS did business with those vendors.

Some of the payoffs to Garnett, a 61-year-old Hyattsville, Maryland, resident, were derived from falsified orders placed with the vendors that were paid for in full by the school system, federal prosecutors said.

Garnett worked with a co-conspirator, whom federal prosecutors said pleaded guilty before trial and whom they did not name, along with the vendors to deliver less goods to the school system than called for by the orders.

DCPS then paid for their orders as if they had been fulfilled normally, and the vendors subsequently paid Garnett and the co-conspirator in cash at multiple locations across the Washington metropolitan area.

Prosecutors said that Garnett used her payments to gamble and buy a household appliance. Multiple other people involved have already pleaded guilty to their participation in the scheme.

Patricia Bailey, a former administrator at Cardozo Education Campus in Northwest, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of bribery.

DCPS vendor Duane King pleaded guilty to bribery in this case in September 2023.

Federal prosecutors also said that King participated in a similar scheme with two D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services employees — he paid them, and in exchange they funneled department business to his company and authorized payments for goods that were not delivered.

Another vendor, Donald McWhirter, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery in July 2024. Sentencing for Bailey, McWhirter and King are pending.

Prosecutors also accused Yelake Meseretu, 41, another DCPS vendor, of bribery and wire fraud in participation in the scheme. A trial is pending.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.