The principal of a charter school in central Florida resigned this week after saying she wrote a $100,000 check out of the school's account to an internet scammer posing as Elon Musk.
Dr. Jan McGee, who was the principal at Burns Science and Technology Charter School in Oak Hill, said she was "groomed" by someone for four months who was posing as the SpaceX founder who is also the CEO of Twitter and Tesla, NBC affiliate WESH reported.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
>
WATCH HERE“I am a very smart lady. Well-educated. I fell for a scam,” McGee said.
McGee said she had been trying to get Musk and his money involved in the STEM school for years.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
>
SIGN UP
“Somehow she believed it,” board chair Albert Amalfitano said. “He must have been really convincing.”
McGee said she gave the check to someone she believed was Musk's right-hand man with the promise of getting $6 million back. The principal had permission to write checks of up to $50,000 without board approval.
“I put myself into this position and into this mess and I made a bad decision,” McGee said.
Local
The check was stopped before it cleared. At a meeting, McGee resigned following issues from several administrators in what some called a "toxic" work environment.
“When you lose the respect of… When your leadership is now in question, you can't properly lead and that's going to cause chaos,” Amalfitano said.
