BATON ROUGE — A former Louisiana Department of Education employee pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud more than $74,000 in federal grant funds by way of a nonexistent childcare provider, Acting United States Attorney Ellison C. Travis said Friday. 

Romney Manuel, 51, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and now faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. 

According to prosecutors, Manuel and another person — Demietriek Scott — devised a scheme to receive Louisiana Child Care Assistance Provider grant money from the Louisiana Department of Education between April 2020 and March 2021.

The LaCAP money was intended to be spent during a Presidentially Declared Major Disaster or Emergency, like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pair made a non-existent childcare provider appear operational and manipulated spreadsheets and data systems utilized by the Louisiana Department of Education in order to steal $74,250 in federal funds, federal prosecutors said. 

After the scheme was uncovered, Manuel was fired from his job as a program consultant in the Office of Early Childhood Operations.