Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
This story is about a Malaysian school principal who almost defrauded an entire private school by stealing all the students’ info and trying to start a new school under his wife’s name.
I began my career in education when I was about 26 years old. One of my students’ fathers owned an international school and offered me a job at his school. I worked there and developed my skills and reputation as an educator.
Six years went by, and someone had come to me with a business opportunity. One of my students’ parents introduced me to a man who was looking for someone to start a school. He would be the financial partner, providing the premises and facilities, while I would oversee operations.
It was an intriguing offer and I wanted to take it, but I needed someone to manage the business and marketing side of things. So I thought of one of my former colleagues, Larry, and asked him if he would be interested in being business partners.
Long story short, we became co-founders of our new private school. I was to be CEO and Larry was named the principal. The first two years of life were good. Business was good. Larry and I were quite well-known in the education world, and although we hadn’t done much marketing, knowledge of our school spread via word of mouth.
I was earning almost RM9,000 a month and at the end of every year, we turned a RM20,000 profit. For two new kids on the block, it was a pretty good haul. Unfortunately, not everything lasts forever. Things began to take a gradual turn, so gradual that I didn’t catch it until it was too late.
My business partner and I began to drift apart.
Larry and I had begun to drift apart. I had begun to feel coldness from him for some time, but we never really addressed it. We rarely spoke to each other.
I trusted him to do his part for the business, while I worked tirelessly to do my part. So long as the business thrived, nothing else mattered. That was my first mistake.
In hindsight, I should have addressed the reason for the cold shoulder. It wasn’t anything I had done to him personally, which was why I felt I didn’t owe him an explanation.
I have a love and passion for teaching and students. I was close to all my students and not to toot my own horn, but they were really fond of me. I had great rapport with all of them. Larry, however, wasn’t particularly friendly towards the students and he was strict with them. It probably didn’t help that he was the principal either. So naturally, our students did not like him. And over time, I believe this got to him. It tugged at his pride and ego, being the less-liked partner and he started to take it out on me.
Another mistake I made was allowing his wife, Mandy to work as our school admin. Initially, it was a good deal; someone close to us and someone who understood the vision we had for the school being the admin. It made the processes and operations smoother. Unfortunately, it also gave her and her husband full access and all the power they needed to eventually bring the business to its knees.
I had completely left the business side to Larry, trusting him completely so much that I never asked for updates or an account of how we were doing. He had full and unchecked reign over our money. That was mistake Number Three.
Thankfully, he couldn’t steal any of it. All three of us partners were signatories to money withdrawals or activity. The bank required at least two of us to be present to sign and authenticate transactions. And since Larry was acting on his solo, he couldn’t take our pre-existing money. But he devised a plan to take our future money… and our students.
The school principal attempted to register a new school to his wife’s name
Larry registered a school under his wife’s name; he couldn’t put it under his name as that would have been a conflict of interest. He discreetly sent out letters to all parents telling them the school was now under new management and location and attached registration forms for parents to enrol their children in the “new school”.
He set up a new business bank account, bearing the name of his new school and in the letter, parents were instructed to make all future payments to said bank account.
Fortunately, I was able to intercept one such letter, because a student showed it to me. I was shocked to my core. I know our relationship has deteriorated, but for Larry to take it this far and commit fraud and criminal breach of trust? Never in a million years would I have expected this from him. I realised I had been naïve all along and refused to see the worst in people.
I also found out that they had been slowly collecting and hiding sensitive information pertaining to the running of the school, our numbers and accounts. They would save it on a hard drive and then delete everything from the admin computer.
He knew this would cripple the business because he knew full well I didn’t keep a copy of the school’s records and books. I had stupidly left that entire part to him and he took advantage of my complete trust.
I informed our financial partner, Kelvin, and Larry was kicked out. We fired his wife for misconduct, and I had to go through the painstaking and embarrassing process of calling up each of our students’ parents to explain the situation and how the school was not under new management. It wasn’t fun but I had to do it to close this bizarre chapter of the school.
Unfortunately, this was merely the beginning. The beginning of a three-year long legal battle between our school and the unhappy ex-founder and his wife.
A 3-year legal battle ensued between me and the former school principal
His wife sued us for unjust termination; we countered with stealing of private and sensitive property (school records and information) as well as fraud and criminal breach of trust.
It was three years of back-and forth lawsuits and although we won in the end, the stress and fighting in court as well as legal fees had already taken its toll. Let’s not forget that I had a school to run at the same time; all on my own now.
Money has also become a hurdle as the bank had frozen our assets pending further investigation due to the court cases. Which means I had to take a significantly reduced salary amount for two years just so operations would not be disrupted.
After this whole debacle was over, Kelvin and I started the business afresh. We changed the name of the school and basically started from scratch again. Our school went on for a few years before Covid-19 hit. After that, we sold our business to a third party.
I’m no longer in the school running business. I’ve moved on to the training sector now. I’m in management, but not as an owner or CEO, thankfully. I no longer carry the burden of sustaining a business or being vulnerable to lawsuits. Being embroiled in legal battles for years is not something I want to experience ever again. However, running my school still holds some of my best and some of my worst memories.
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Read also: This Private School’s Entire Staff Resigned Due to The Boss’s New Wife
This Private School’s Entire Staff Resigned Due to The Boss’s New Wife
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