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The city Department of Education’s independent watchdog was accused Wednesday of rigging an investigation into Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels over a shady contract he signed when he was a district superintendent.
The Post previously reported that Samuels was probed by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for signing a $180,000 no-bid contract with an unapproved vendor, Sean Kreyling, whose Kreyco company helps provide foreign language teachers to schools.
The 2023 contract, signed by Samuels when he was the District 3 superintendent on the Upper West Side, was doled out in chunks of $25,000 under two of Kreyling’s companies — in an apparent attempt to avoid financial oversight from the city.
His deputy superintendent, Mariela Graham, signed a second contract for the same amount the following year.
SCI blamed Graham in a June 2025 report, recommending she be fired — but she was quietly tapped to a $225,571-a-year post at DOE under Samuels, a Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointee, The Post previously reported.
But Kreyling — testifying during a City Council hearing on Wednesday — claimed SCI investigators ignored evidence allegedly implicating Samuels in order to shield him, and that the probe had “a predetermined conclusion.”
“It had a narrative that it wanted to carry out from start to finish, protecting certain individuals, and ultimately it allowed me and my organization to be the scapegoats for the very poor decisions of Kamar Samuels,” he charged.
Kreyling also claimed SCI excluded evidence from its final report tying Samuels directly to the eyebrow-raising billing arrangement.
“I provided them with everything that they requested. They requested very few things,” he said upon questioning by Queens Councilman Phil Wong.
“When I offered more, they declined,” Kreyling added.
Wong said that a billing email detailing the invoice split was addressed to Graham but CC’d Samuels –and that “SCI quoted that email in its final report, but removed the CC to Samuels.”
Samuels was grilled by council members, during a Monday hearing, over the contracts.
“I regret the lapses in policy and procedures that took place while I was the superintendent, and the actions in question were all meant to [be] in the pursuit of educational opportunity,” Samuels testified — before DOE General Counsel Liz Vladeck stopped him.
Vladeck advised Samuels not to answer further questions about the contracts, citing “active speculation in the press” about the SCI investigation being reopened.
She’s also said she personally signed off on overruling SCI’s recommendation to fire Graham.
SCI spokesperson Anna Corea said the independent DOE watchdog was “aware of these new allegations and will handle them accordingly” and “stand by the findings in our previous investigation.”
City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.
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