PROVIDENCE – Gov. Daniel J. McKee will not be charged for his efforts to award an education contract to a new consulting firm that was formed by a political ally during his first few days in office, Attorney General Peter F. Neronha concluded Tuesday.
The announcement ended the state probe launched in 2021 with
R.I. State Police into McKee’s role in the awarding of the now-canceled $5.2 million contract to the ILO Group, a company that was formed by Julia Rafal-Baer, an associate of Michael Magee Jr., who had served on McKee’s transition team and helped fund charter schools in Cumberland.
“Yes, Gov. Daniel J. McKee intentionally and against the findings on an independent state review team steered a federally funded state contract to a company formed for that purpose by Magee’s close associate Rafal-Baer," Neronha concluded in his report made public Tuesday. "The evidence is cloudy and contradictory. ... Cloudy and contradictory evidence rarely ever justifies a prosecution ... We choose not to bring on here.”
Two days after he took office in 2021, McKee awarded the contract to ILO despite it being $4 million higher than a competing bid from WestEnd. The contract was scrutinized by House and Senate oversight committees in separate hearings, which included close examinations of a Zoom call McKee held with ILO a day after the company was incorporated and three days after he became governor.
Neronha and the state police launched their investigation later that fall. It was later joined by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI.
“Today's report confirms what we've been saying for years," McKee said in an emailed statement to Providence Business News. "No wrongdoing took place and our priority has and will always be delivering for the people of Rhode Island. It's unfortunate that so much time and taxpayer dollars were wasted on an effort that was always going to come up empty, but now it's important that we all move forward and continue focusing on the issues that are impacting Rhode Islanders every day."
(UPDATE adds comment from Gov. Daniel J. McKee in the sixth paragraph.)