Investigation: Charter school leaders, founders linked to controversial Turkish cleric

A group of charter schools that arose from North Jersey’s Turkish community is rapidly growing in the state, with seven schools collecting more than $60 million in taxpayer money last year alone to fund their growth.

Now, an investigation by The Record and NorthJersey.com shows that some founders and leaders of the schools  have close ties to the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the controversial Islamic cleric accused of working to overthrow the government in his native Turkey last summer. Gulen has denied the charge and is fighting extradition demands as he lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, about 10 miles from the New Jersey border.

The 75-year-old Gulen, in his writings and public comments, espouses a modern Islamic society that embraces education, interfaith dialogue and tolerance. Sympathy for the movement is strong among key figures who pioneered the North Jersey charter schools.

Some belong to Turkish émigré groups that tout the cleric's teachings. There are also political donors who collectively have furnished hundreds of thousands in donations to U.S. office holders while the North Jersey charter schools in general have been adept at wooing state and local government officials with trips to Turkey and, in some cases, jobs.

Records show the charter schools also have been a channel for state taxpayer money to private entities that serve the schools as landlords or vendors — in one case, a Wayne boarding school that is openly Gulen inspired.

In Turkey’s capital of Ankara, President Recep Erdogan (err-doe-wan) — some critics say in an effort to solidify his power and move toward authoritarianism — has purged thousands of suspected "Gulenists" from the government. He is also pressing the Trump administration to break with former President Barack Obama and immediately dislodge the cleric and send him home to stand trial as a domestic terrorist who they claim was behind the July 2016 coup attempt.

Officials in the turbulent Turkish republic have maintained Gulen is leveraging a network of more than 100 charter schools nationwide and U.S. tax dollars to support revolution back home that would put his followers in power.

“It’s clear these schools were being used both to raise funds for Gulen and employ Gulen followers and teachers and basically have them tie a percent of their income back to Gulen,” said Robert Amsterdam, a London-based lawyer hired by the Turkish government who is investigating charter schools in the U.S. that he alleges are linked to Gulen.

The United States has not classified Gulen or his followers as a terrorist group, and some officials have characterized the cleric as an antidote to Islamic extremism. The Trump administration has not made an official policy statement about Gulen.

Gulen disavows any role in  the Turkish coup or terror attacks there, and he has long denied a connection to the Turkish-led charter schools in the United States.

Leaders of the New Jersey schools interviewed for this story say their charters, spread across a dozen locations stretching from Hackensack to Somerset County, have no formal link to the reclusive preacher. The schools exist solely to provide good secular education for the large numbers of public school families seeking better outcomes for their children, they say.

As the international controversy around Gulen swirls, the Turkish-led schools in New Jersey continue to collect tens of millions of dollars in state financing and local tax support, public records show.

The Record's review raises key questions about state oversight of the schools even as Governor Christie – who visited three of the North Jersey locations last year  – pushes to rapidly expand the charter movement across the state:

The investigation found:

A state-financed property deal involving the Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology also benefited its landlord, a private group with close ties to the Gulen movement: 

• That group sold the property and used the proceeds to help open a new campus in Wayne for its private boarding school that caters largely to students from Turkey and hews so closely to Gulen's teachings that the Turkish government has closed down access to its web site and halted financial transactions involving the school.  
• Public money, in fees and rent that could amount to millions of dollars over time, continues to flow to the charter school's new landlord, a firm with multiple ties to Turkish charter schools in New Jersey and elsewhere.  

Connections run deep among people involved with the schools, Gulenist groups and Turkish charter schools elsewhere in the U.S:   

• Two of the New Jersey schools, for example, have a founder who has served as a director at the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values, considered the voice of the Gulen movement in this country.   
• The CEO of iLearn Schools Inc. – an Elmwood Park-based non-profit that manages four of the local charter schools – comes from a charter network in Texas that the Turkish government claims is linked to the Gulen movement.  

The schools and their vendors have successfully courted prominent public-school educators and political figures.   

• The state’s top charter school regulator, Harold Lee, left his post last summer for a job at iLearn.   
• Security consulting contracts at four of the schools worth more than $90,000 a year are held by ex-Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire, who took a 10-day trip to Turkey before he left office in 2010 with his family and local Turkish nationals tied to the schools. It was paid for in part by a Gulenist group. 

More than $30 million in long-term, low-interest loans have been granted by the state to benefit the Paterson science and technology charter despite its continuing financial and academic troubles: 

• In 2014, a Wall Street ratings agency downgraded the bonds issued for its expansion to junk status because the school’s revenues had fallen. Last year, Wall Street lowered its overall outlook on the bonds to “negative.” 

Tracking tax dollars spent by the schools can be difficult because of loopholes in state law:

• ILearn, which is set to add a fifth charter to its chain this year, declined to answer routine requests for information about its payroll, saying that as a private contractor it is not subject to the state Open Public Records law.   
• State officials said it is unclear if such charter-management organizations fall under the law, even though charters draw their funding directly from the tax-funded budgets of regular public schools.  

Gulen’s followers maintain the campaign against the American charters by the Turkish government is part of an attempt to smear and harass Gulen supporters wherever they live.

They dismiss the idea of a political or religious conspiracy operating through them and say Gulen’s movement is about hard work, peace and leading an ethical life. The movement’s Alliance for Shared Values maintains his devotees have simply been inspired to “promote education, particularly in math and science, by starting schools to serve disadvantaged communities.”

It is also clear, though, that local Turks sympathetic to Gulen have influence well beyond the charter schools and are skilled at building political capital. Civic and cultural organizations linked to Gulen are active in the community at large, holding academic competitions for students and interfaith and outreach events with politicians, law enforcement and the public.

Members of the organizations are vocal about issues that affect Turkey and have provided U.S. lawmakers and others like McGuire with trips to their homeland, including two Bergen County lawmakers, Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, financial disclosure forms show. Census figures show that Bergen and Passaic counties have the nation’s highest percentage of residents with Turkish ancestry among America's 3,000-plus counties. There are 5,200 in Bergen County alone.

Johnson said he visited a Gulen university and met with a group of Gulenist educators. Weinberg recalled learning about the Gulen philosophy when she traveled to the republic with Johnson in 2011. Like the former sheriff, both legislators said they paid for airfare and the Peace Islands Institute, a U.S.-based group that considers Gulen its honorary president, picked up the costs for the 2011 trip. Johnson visited again in 2014 on a trip that was paid for, in part, by the Council of Turkic American Associations, which promotes Turkish culture.

McGuire said Gulen was not discussed on what he called a “spectacular trip” in 2008. But a brochure by the Turkish Cultural Center of New Jersey about the excursion quotes him as saying: “I now have many, many more Turkish friends. It is clear that those who have read the books of Fethullah Gulen have taken his message throughout Turkey and the world to promote interfaith dialogue and understanding.”

Christie has repeatedly used the Turkish charter schools in New Jersey as a backdrop to his controversial push to expand the charter movement.

In June, as protesters gathered outside, he visited the high school campus of the Paterson science and technology charter and met with parents. In May, he stopped at the Hackensack location of the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School — an iLearn school — and traveled to the Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School in Somerset.

In a statement for The Record, the governor's office did not address specific issues with the Turkish schools but pointed out the popularity and success of charter schools overall.

"In general, qualified public charter schools are thriving and growing across New Jersey, because they have proven to be some of the most safe, successful, efficient and accountable educational environments,'' Christie spokesman Brian Murray said.

A number of prominent Turkish nationals connected to the charters or their vendors have emerged as fundraisers and contributors to Hillary Clinton and Obama, among other political leaders. A former head of the Science and Technology charter in Paterson, Furkan Kosar, is the president of the Council of Turkic American Associations. Kosar raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s re-election bid in 2012. He did not return calls made to the council.

Critics say the presence of big-money contributors connected to the schools in New Jersey and other states is evidence the cleric and his followers are advancing the Gulen movement at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

“They’re engaging in a series of activities that really don’t have anything to do with charter schools, and have much more to do with building political influence in the U.S. for his movement,” said Amsterdam, the lawyer for the Turkish government.

Among those critics is retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s recently ousted national security adviser who claimed American taxpayers “are helping finance Gulen’s 160 charter schools in the United States” in an op-ed piece written in November for The Hill, the congressional newspaper that assailed the Obama administration for allowing Gulen to remain in the United States.

Ercan Tozan, executive director of Peace Islands, dismissed the suggestion of the schools having any purpose beyond education.

Tozan said that the practice of hiring from the same pool of candidates – including Turks who worked in similar schools or who follow Gulen’s teachings – isn’t an issue. They may have shared connections, but they’re hired for their qualifications, he said.

“Is it a problem to know each other and to know Mr. Gulen?” said Tozan, also a parent of a student at the Pioneer Academy, the Gulen-inspired private school in Wayne. “The Turkish community has really great connections.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Ercan Tozan as a board member of Pioneer Academy.

iLearn, the Elmwood Park-based nonprofit that manages four of the charter schools, hired Harold Lee last year as its chief strategy officer.

The job has duties that include seeking philanthropic funding and growing the firm in New York, officials said. ILearn Schools collects a steady and growing stream of tax money to manage charter schools in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties. The firm is paid from 8 percent to 12 percent of the charters' annual operating budgets, and it plans to open a new school in Union County this year.

With Lee serving as New Jersey's lead charter school official for two years before iLearn recruited him, submissions from the company would likely have come before him. Both Lee and a spokesman for the state Education Department said he notified his superiors in May that he was in talks with iLearn and recused himself from matters affecting its schools. All charter-school applications are approved solely by the commissioner of education, the spokesman said.

Lee, in a written statement, said he decided to leave his state job because of iLearn's "dynamic" impact on public education in places that need it most.

"I came to iLearn Schools because I wanted to work for an organization that is truly making a difference in the lives of students and families each and every day,'' Lee said. "This is a dynamic, innovative organization that is providing high-quality public education to students in areas that are in need of more quality educational options."

Nihat Guvercin, the chief executive of iLearn, declined to speak about Lee or release his salary, except to say it is in a range of $93,000 to $151,000.  ILearn said it is not bound to release salary data or other detailed financial information about its operations because, as a private firm, it is not subject to the same open record laws that govern traditional public schools.

In a written response to questions, Guvercin said iLearn strictly adheres to all state laws, which he said are among the toughest in the nation on charter schools.

A maze of connections links a group of charter schools rooted in New Jersey’s Turkish community with the movement of a reclusive Islamic cleric living in self-imposed exile in the Poconos, an investigation by The Record and NorthJersey.com has found.

A review of state records, websites, résumés and tax forms reveals how people involved with the schools are linked to groups that are viewed as sympathetic to Fethullah Gulen, the preacher accused of pushing for a revolution in his native Turkey.

For example, Nihat Guvercin, chief executive officer of iLearn, an Elmwood Park-based non-profit that manages four of the schools, is a former teacher and administrator at Harmony Science Academy in Dallas, one in an expansive network of charters targeted by the Turkish government as part of Gulen’s movement.

Guvercin declined to be interviewed for this story, but he told The Record in 2013 that he admires Gulen – just as he admires India’s Mahatma Gandhi – but does not talk about his philosophy in class.

More recently, he emphasized in an email the schools are independent, with no religious or political affiliation. And he said questions about Gulen's philosophy and the backgrounds of school officials and contractors miss the point that schools provide good education to needy students.

"We have a waiting list in the thousands,'' he said.  "We provide quality, secular, public-school education in some of the most underserved urban communities in the state.

“Rather than spending valuable time discussing global issues of no importance to the education of our students,” Guvercin added, “I commit myself both personally and professionally to the individual and collective success of our students, staff, and families.”

Osman Oztoprak, a Clifton resident who most recent available tax records show has been a paid director at the Alliance for Shared Values – considered the voice of the Gulen movement in the United States – is a founder of the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School. It was the first school in what later became the iLearn chain.

Oztoprak, who declined to be interviewed through the Alliance, signed paperwork filed with the state in 2005 as the “charter school applicant representative.” The Record also submitted questions to Gulen through the Alliance, which they answered on his behalf.

Years earlier, Oztoprak was among the founders of the Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology, records show.

The Paterson charter has an additional connection to the Gulen movement.  A founding partner of the school is the Milky Way Education Center, the non-profit that runs the private, Gulen-inspired Pioneer Academy in Wayne, documents show. Milky Way acquired a building, became the charter school’s landlord and loaned the school money.

But to the Turkish government, Pioneer Academy is much more.

In fact, the Turkish government so closely connects Pioneer to Gulen that since the attempted coup in 2016 – which it blames the cleric for –  tuition payments from Turkish residents to Pioneer have been shut down and access to the school's website has been taken away in Turkey.

Pioneer’s leaders say they offer a secular curriculum and that the school incorporates Gulen’s view of education as a key to an ethical and service-driven life.

Oztoprak also was connected to Pioneer, serving as a principal and science teacher, and records also note he was one of its two founding teachers.

Another founder and former board president at the Paterson science and technology charter school, Candemir Toklu, went on to help found the Thomas Edison charter in Somerset, records show.

Toklu, who was identified as “lead founder” in the state application for Thomas Edison, also has served as Princeton area director of the Interfaith Dialog Center – now known as the Peace Islands Institute. The institute, which has an address in Hasbrouck Heights, on its website lists Gulen as its "honorary president" and provides an extensive biography of the cleric and his movement.

Toklu could not be reached for comment.

Overlap also can be found between the people involved with the Gulen movement and vendors that serve some of the local charters.

The non-profit Apple Educational Services in Moonachie, for example, has been used by Pioneer and a number of the Turkish charters in New Jersey and other states. One of its corporate officers was an officer at the Interfaith Dialog Center, and at one point Apple and the center shared an address in Carlstadt, federal non-profit tax  records show.

The name of Apple’s former treasurer also can be found on state paperwork as a vice president for Somerset-based EBRU TV – owned by the movement, according to an article posted on Gulen’s official website.

Oztoprak, meanwhile, was an education project manager at Apple.

State documents show the company – whose services include database management, testing, tutoring and robotics training – serves about 30 schools in nine states in various ways; Apple’s executive director said it does not fund or support special-interest groups, Gulenist or otherwise.

A subsidiary of Apple is the current landlord for the Paterson Charter for Science and Technology – the firm also has had stakes in land ownership for Turkish charter schools in Massachusetts and New York.

Joshua Hendrick, a sociologist at Loyola University and an expert on the Gulen movement, said it was common for staff or board members to have worked at other Turkish-run charter schools across the country. They often use the same Turkish-owned firms for consulting, information technology, construction and other work, he said.

Alp Aslandogan, president of the Alliance for Shared Values, said the hires are a result of networking and aren’t a problem.

“People might come to know about other individuals through their social networks,” he said. “The important issue is if someone is hired by an agency, are they qualified to do the job?”

Pioneer Academy sits on 6.3 acres in Wayne. The marble-floored lobby and glass-walled rooms of the private, international school have a polished, modern look. Students put a finger on a scanner atop a turnstile to enter the spacious dining room in a building that is eight times the size of its old home in Clifton.

The $11 million property, a former corporate campus, was remodeled for the pricey boarding school, which caters to students from Turkey, charges more than $30,000 for tuition and boarding, and adheres to the teachings of Gulen.

An investigation by The Record and NorthJersey.com found a state-financed sale of property rented by the Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology helped to establish this sleek, new campus.

The sale netted millions for the group that runs Pioneer, which for years served as the charter school’s landlord.

It also put the charter's new landlord, a subsidiary of Apple Educational Services, a non-profit based in Moonachie, in line to collect taxpayer-funded rents and landlord fees indefinitely.

The bottom line:  A private firm and not the public charter school owns the property and can choose to rent or sell it for a profit. And it began with funding from state taxpayers.

It’s the result of a complicated series of transactions that began in 2005 when, documents show, the non-profit behind Pioneer, the Milky Way Education Center, bought a building on Lehigh Avenue in Paterson for $2.75 million for the charter school’s use. The next year, the state Economic Development Authority stepped in with an aid package: $5.4 million in tax-free bonds to refinance loans Milky Way took out to buy and renovate the dilapidated industrial property on Lehigh Avenue.

Milky Way collected rent serving as landlord to the Paterson charter – ultimately more than $1 million annually, contracts show.

In 2012, it sold the Paterson property to the Apple subsidiary for $10.5 million – part of a larger deal also financed by the state.

Milky Way reported a net “gain” of $4.37 million on tax forms and the next year it moved Pioneer from Clifton to Wayne. Pioneer said funds acquired through the sale of the charter property in Paterson were used toward the new building for the private boarding school.

Pioneer Principal Tufan Aydin said in an email that Milky Way had invested millions of dollars to renovate the charter building and sold it to focus on its new boarding school, which required “a significant infusion of capital.” He said it approached Apple, which provides services to Pioneer, about purchasing the building.

The taxpayer-funded Paterson charter school, meanwhile, continues to pay rent on the same site – only now it pays the Apple subsidiary, instead of Milky Way.

In all, the Apple company received state financing of more than $30 million in 2012 to buy the property from Milky Way and an old mattress factory on West Railway Avenue that it renovated for the creation of the charter’s new high school.

The charter now pays more than $2.4 million annually to rent both properties – an amount that is more than $400,000 above the debt service on the bonds. Lease and state documents show the landlord can make annual fees amounting to at least 10 percent above the debt payments to bondholders. Over the life of the bonds, that would generate about $12 million.

An Apple official said  in an email this is not all profit to his firm, noting the money goes to pay off other mandatory costs associated with the bonds and for other expenses. He did not provide a breakdown, but described the rent paid by the school as “certainly reasonable and within market pricing.”

State law doesn’t allow charter schools to incur long-term debt, so it’s not uncommon for another entity to get involved. But there’s no limit on how long the charter can pay rent – and no provision in the current leases calling for the property to be transferred to the school once the bonds have been paid off.

The state Economic Development Authority said it’s not “in its purview” to assess the long-term impact on taxpayers of such deals – or to assure a charter school ends up owning its facility.

But critics say deals like this can end up hurting taxpayers.

Rutgers University Professor Bruce Baker, a nationally recognized expert on education financing, said charter-school economics in New Jersey could benefit outsiders at the expense of the public.

"In many ways, what we’re seeing is absurd and illogical,” Baker said.

Long-term financing of school facilities made possible via state bonding not only stresses taxpayers but puts pressure on schools to meet annual financial goals amid continuing uncertainties about enrollment, state certification and the availability of qualified teachers, Baker said.

Such financing is also routinely used by third-party landlords to leverage private ventures, he said, effectively turning taxpayers into a bank for something other than public education. State officials say taxpayers are not exposed because bondholders assume the risk if the school fails.

But Baker said that does not factor in the millions in tax dollars spent on annual debt-service payments.

”That money is basically pissed away,” he said. “When the bond is repaid and after taxpayers spend all that money, the public doesn’t own the facility.”

Apple faced scrutiny over a real-estate deal involving a charter school from government overseers in New York.

In a 2013 report, state auditors said there was evidence that a deal between the school’s board and Apple was not at arm's length and the firm stood to make to make a 200 percent profit on leasing the property to the school.

Auditors estimated the company spent $1.9 million to purchase and renovate an old YWCA building and stood to net a return of $4.4 million over the life of a 15-year-lease with the charter. The audit did not identify the corporation by name, but online property records show Apple as the owner at that time.

School officials disagreed with the findings, claiming the charter and landlord acted independently and had no relationship before the purchase. Contacted by The Record, an official with Apple declined to comment on the criticism leveled by New York.

A loosely affiliated group of schools started largely by Turkish Americans is a growing player among publicly funded charter schools in New Jersey, with campuses at a dozen locations in the northern part of the state.

Below is a snapshot, taken from 2014-15, of the schools, showing who goes there, how much money they spend, and how they perform.

Another affiliated school is under development in Union County.

Source: New Jersey 2014-15 School Performance Reports and the Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending, except for Hudson, which comes from the school itself.

NOTE: By way of comparison, the statewide pass rate on the grade 4 test was 52 percent in English and 42 percent in math. The statewide pass rate for grade 7 was 53 percent in English and 38 percent in math. An asterisk indicates an iLearn school.

Bergen Arts and Science Charter School*

Location: K-3 in Garfield; 4-8 in Garfield; 9-12 in Hackensack

Opened: 2007

Enrollment: 959

Makeup: 42 percent, Hispanic; 35 percent, white; 15 percent, black; 8 percent, Asian

Pass rate on grade 4 state test: 68 percent, English; 63 percent, math

Pass rate on grade 7 state test: 72 percent, English; 39 percent, math

Average SAT scores: 1,412, school; 1,383, peer schools; 1,508, state

Annual budget: $14,316,949

Passaic  Arts & Science Charter School*

Location: Three campuses for K-2, 3-5 and 6-11 in Passaic

Opened: 2011

Enrollment: 536

Makeup: 77 percent, Hispanic; 13 percent, black; 6 percent, white; 3 percent, Asian

Pass rate on grade 4 state test: 26 percent, English; 17 percent, math

Pass rate on grade 7 state test: 69 percent, English; 52 percent, math

Annual budget: $7,716,332

Paterson  Arts and Science Charter School*

Location: K-9 school in Paterson

Opened: 2013

Enrollment: 420

Makeup: 58 percent, Hispanic; 38 percent, black; 3 percent, white

Pass rate on grade 4 state test: 39 percent, English

Annual budget: $6,217,301

Paterson  Charter School  for Science and Technology

Location: Two campuses for K-6 and 7-12 in Paterson

Opened: 2003

Enrollment: 1,046

Makeup: 56 percent, Hispanic; 40 percent, black; 3 percent, white

Pass rate on grade 4 state test: 43 percent, English; 36 percent, math

Pass rate on grade 7 state test: 43 percent, English; 13 percent, math

Average SAT score: school, 1,279; peer schools, 1,205; state, 1,508

Annual budget: $19,493,054

Thomas Edison Energy Smart School

Location: K-6 school in Somerset

Opened: 2002

Enrollment: 296

Makeup: 71 percent, Asian; 14 percent, white; 11 percent, black; 4 percent, Hispanic

Pass rate on grade 4 state test: 86 percent, English; 69 percent, math

Annual budget: $3,258,094

Central Jersey College Prep

Location: 6-12 school in Somerset (a lower-grades school opened last year)

Opened: 2006

Enrollment: 316

Makeup: 48 percent, black; 20 percent, Hispanic; 20 percent, Asian; 12 percent, white

Pass rate on grade 7 state test: 79 percent, English; 71 percent, math

Average SAT scores: 1,497, school; 1,378, peer schools; 1,508, state

Annual budget: $5,297,126

Hudson Arts and Science Charter School*

Location: K-5 school in Kearny

Opened: Fall 2016

Test data unavailable because it just opened.

A group of charter schools, which arose from North Jersey’s Turkish community and has established a large and growing footprint in the state, has had both success and struggles.

The schools, with a strong focus on math, science and technology, have been praised by officials and parents as places of innovation and have earned a strong reputation with long wait lists to enroll in the schools via their annual lotteries.

But while some of the schools are diverse, two have been accused in a federal civil rights complaint of enrollment practices that keep out disadvantaged students.

Charter schools operate independently of regular public school districts, but are funded by tax dollars.

Christie visited three of the schools last year, including the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School in Hackensack, where he lauded the school’s use of technology in the classroom.

"I'm here today because I want people to know about the extraordinary work and accomplishments being done here every day by you and your teachers," Christie told students and faculty during his visit in May.

The governor also visited the Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School in Somerset in May, where he touted the strong academic performance but failed to acknowledge criticism over the school’s enrollment practices. Education officials ordered the school one year ago to develop a plan to improve diversity when he approved a renewal of the school’s charter agreement.

Both the Thomas Edison school and Central Jersey College Prep Charter School, also in Somerset, are the subject of a federal complaint filed this month. The complaint alleges that they discriminate in their enrollment, and that they educate fewer students who are low-income, who have disabilities and who are learning English.

The Latino Coalition of New Jersey and Franklin C.A.R.E.S., a parent advocacy group, are calling for a federal and state investigation.

Both schools have denied allegations of discrimination and said the complaint was part of an effort “to harass” and “to shut down” public charter schools.

State test data show schools in Bergen and Somerset counties have performed better than statewide averages, as did middle school students at a charter in Passaic city. Schools in Paterson fell below – but they outperformed their home district.

One of the schools, the Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology, landed on probation for nearly a year in 2006 and 2007. Its continuing “weak academic performance” was cited by  a Standard & Poor’s credit analyst in lowering the overall outlook on debt associated with the school’s facilities.

The school, which opened in 2003, had previously been investigated by the state and cited for staffing and financial issues, including hiring teachers without proper certification, possible no-show employees, tenure violations and improper payments of immigration fees.

The ratings agency downgraded the school's bonds in October 2014, citing both financial and academic issues, falling "far below" academic standards in some areas.

A second action by the agency, in February 2016, revised the outlook on the bonds from "stable" to "negative.'' A report at the time cited "weakened" cash levels that violated the terms of the school's bond agreement with the state and required the hiring of an outside financial consultant.

A school official, responding to questions from The Record, blamed  a drop in state aid and one-time expenses associated with opening a new school for the financial weaknesses. The official, Riza Gurcanli, said that the school continues to operate on a "tight budget," and that the overall fund balance for the 2015-16 school year was positive.

Critics claim the schools are part of a nationwide network of at least 100 charter schools that are tied to the Gulen movement.

In some states, so-called Gulen schools have been investigated for improper bidding practices that steer contracts to Turkish-owned companies, misuse of a visa program to bring teachers from Turkey, and improper use of a federal grant program. Charters in Ohio and Louisiana were raided by the FBI.

The growing New Jersey network, however, has received kudos from many parents and politicians.

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, who has visited two of the charter schools at their invitation, said they provide an alternative for families who may seek a small-school environment in a diverse setting.

“It gives kids a chance in a school with different cultures and languages. They learn and respect each other’s customs,” he said.

“If the students coming out of these schools are prepared to go on to the next state in their education, then that is a good service,” he added.

Hendrick, the assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University Maryland who wrote a book about the Gulen movement, said some of the schools have been under investigation over their operations and finances. But many of the schools, he said, are thriving.

“For every one under investigation, there are 10 or 20 more that couldn't be more successful,” he said.

To his supporters, Fethullah Gulen is an enlightened leader – a modern Islamic visionary who champions education, interfaith dialogue and tolerance.

To the ruling party in his Turkish homeland, Gulen is a dangerous enemy – a traitor they accuse of plotting a failed coup last July and a terrorist whose followers were alleged to have been behind the assassination of a Russian envoy in Turkey late last year.

The sharply divergent views on the 75-year-old cleric have deeply divided Turkish society. Now they also are stirring tensions with the U.S. as Recep  Erdogan, the Turkish president, has pressed for Gulen’s extradition and sharply criticized the Obama administration for failing to honor that request immediately.

And the controversy over Gulen’s status could continue to roil American politics with early indications that the Trump administration might be more sympathetic to Erdogan’s plea.

Trump spoke with Erdogan by phone last week, but a release by the White House about the call did not mention Gulen, instead saying the two men discussed their shared commitment to fighting terrorism. Trump's CIA director flew to Ankara on Thursday, but Trump officials offered no comment about the visit.

Meanwhile, Gulen, who first came to the U.S. in 1999, has remained holed up at his Poconos estate, rarely seen or heard from in public. For the most part, he has allowed a team of handlers to issue statements in his name in which he steadfastly denies involvement in the coup and any terror attacks.

Still, he remains the influential leader of a social and religious movement — called Hizmet, a Turkish word  meaning service — with millions of followers in Turkey and around the world who have built businesses, media outlets and schools, including charter schools in the U.S.

The coup attempt and Turkey's calls for the U.S. to extradite him have prompted closer scrutiny of the Islamic cleric and his movement, and deepened questions about his ultimate agenda.

Gulen insists he seeks social, not political, change – through a modern Muslim movement that promotes peace and enlightenment. But critics say he wants to topple the Turkish government so his followers can take power and convert secular Turkey into an Islamic republic.

They claim he is using a massive network of institutions, including the U.S. charter schools, to build up power and money to further his agenda and convert students to his way of thinking.

An investigation by The Record uncovered no direct evidence of Gulen’s involvement in the operation of charter schools in New Jersey. But it did reveal a web of connections among key people involved with the schools, the contractors they hire and established Gulenist groups, while it also raised questions about their use of taxpayer funds and state oversight.

Erdogan pushed hard for the Obama administration to hand over Gulen, saying the U.S. must choose between Turkey and FETO, an acronym for what he also calls the "Gulen Terror Group."  The Trump administration has not yet made any policy announcements on the issue.

“This new generation of a terrorist organization is indeed a national security threat, not only for Turkey but also for all the 170 countries around the world where it is present,” Erdogan said in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 13.

The U.S. State Department does not classify the organization as terrorist. In fact, Gulenist groups have courted American politicians, taking them on trips to Turkey, inviting them to their events, and contributing to their campaigns.

Academics who studied the movement said Gulen seeks social change and power; some say it’s by democratic means while others argue it is by less-open methods. But they are dismissive of the terrorist label, saying there was no evidence Gulen or his movement carried out bombings or assassinations.

“It’s certainly not a terrorist organization in a conventional sense,” said Michael Reynolds, an assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton. “In some ways it’s more dangerous because of ways they’ve been able to get inside the Turkish state.”

Gulen was embraced in the West after 9/11 as a sort of an antidote to Islamic extremism – a moderate leader who swiftly condemned the attacks, rebuked violence and promoted interfaith dialogue.

“No terrorist can be a Muslim, and no true Muslim can be a terrorist," Gulen wrote in a statement published the day after the terrorist attacks. "Islam demands peace, and the Qur’an demands that every true Muslim be a symbol of peace and work to support the maintenance of basic human rights.”

American authorities say Turkey’s extradition request is under review by federal officials, but the countries are bound by a treaty that requires a thorough, lengthy review with standards of evidence to be met.

"Under our laws, extradition requests must be assessed by an independent federal court, along with the evidence backing them up," said a State Department official, who according to agency policy declined to allow her name to be used. "It always takes time to work through an extradition request, but we will continue to work closely with the Turkish government as this process moves forward."

Allies, then a falling-out 

Gulen was once an ally of Erdogan's and helped his rise to power, before a falling-out several years ago set the stage for a bitter rivalry.

The cleric, the son of an imam – a clergyman who presides over services at a mosque – was born in a small village near Turkey’s Erzurum province in 1941. He is said to have been inspired by the work of Said Nursi, a Turkish religious reformer who combined traditional Islamic learning with modern scientific knowledge.

The charismatic preacher rose to prominence starting in the late 1960s, when, as an imam himself, he captivated congregations with speeches on faith while also urging Turks to embrace capitalism, education and social activism. As he traveled and preached, his teachings gained a global following.

In Turkey, his followers opened businesses, charities and newspapers while also filling ranks in the military and in law enforcement. They are best known, though, for establishing hundreds of schools, first in Turkey, then across the world, that promote math, science and ethics.

Gulen supported Erdogan and his rise as prime minister in 2003, where he served for 11 years before his election as president. Both were devout Muslims who opposed the government-enforced secularism that had prevailed in Turkey. They wanted more religious freedom and a more religious society, said Reynolds, the Princeton historian.

But they had a falling-out in 2013 when officials linked to Gulen brought corruption charges against people close to Erdogan. A power struggle ensued. Erdogan struck back, dismissing police officials, prosecutors and judges believed to be aligned with Gulen.

Gulen had clashed with Turkish authorities before Erdogan was even elected to national office. In 1999, a leaked recording surfaced that was said to show Gulen suggesting that his followers infiltrate state institutions.

"You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the centers of power," Gulen said in the recording. “You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey.”

Gulen said the quotations were taken out of context, but critics saw them as proof that he had been seeking to take power in Turkey. The year the recording was leaked, and shortly before he was charged with treason, Gulen came to the U.S for medical treatment and stayed, settling in a secluded compound in the Poconos community of Saylorsburg, about 10 miles from the New Jersey state line.

On July 15, a faction of the Turkish military attempted to topple the government, but failed. The violence left more than 260 people dead and many injured. Gulen has denied allegations that he was behind the coup.

“I condemn, in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey. Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force,” Gulen wrote in a July statement distributed by the Alliance for Shared Values, a U.S.-based organization that speaks for the movement.

Joshua Hendrick, a sociology professor at Loyola University Maryland who has written about Gulen and his movement, said a coup would go against the goals that Gulenists claim to stand for, including peace and democracy.

“In every which way, it contradicts their collective identity and their publicly stated aims,” said Hendrick, author of "Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World."

Hendrick said that Turkey’s labeling of Gulen and his network as terrorists was intended to have a political impact.

“To compare the Gulen community with armed insurrectionist groups has no historical precedent,” he said. “There is no noted history of violence within this organization, which is again what makes the events of July 15 so challenging for people such as myself to believe.”

Crackdown on Gulen movement

Erdogan clamped down after the failed coup, shutting hundreds of schools, businesses and media organizations in Turkey. Thousands of police officers, soldiers, educators and judges tied to the movement also were arrested or thrown out of their jobs.

The clampdown extended even to the Gulen-inspired private school in Wayne, the Pioneer Academy, that had 178 international students in the last school year, mostly from Turkey. This year, there are just 60.

Tufan Aydin, Pioneer’s principal, said many families could not pay tuition because banks were ordered to stop payments to Gulen institutions. Others could not afford it because they or their families had their livelihoods cut short during an attempt by Erdogan, the Turkish president, to purge Gulenists from power and shut down their businesses.

“Parents, they don’t want to have the pressure of sending kids to schools targeted by the prime minister or president,” Aydin said, adding that the schools’ website can no longer be accessed in Turkey.

Last year, the Turkish government hired the London-based law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP to investigate the global activities of the Gulen movement, including operations of alleged Gulen-linked charter schools in the U.S. Attorney Robert Amsterdam has claimed that the tax dollars that go to support the public schools are being used to raise funds for Gulen and the movement and to employ his followers.

Leaders in those charters schools have said they are secular institutions, with no ties to Gulen and his movement, although some have said they themselves are inspired by the Gulenist commitment to modern education.

In the wake of the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey in December, Erdogan alleged that the shooter – an off-duty police officer who said he was angry over Russian intervention in Syria – was linked to Gulen.

A statement released by the Pennsylvania-based cleric said the shooting, which took place at an Ankara art gallery and was captured in a series of jarring photographs, had nothing to do with him or his movement. Rather, Gulen's supporters said, Erdogan was trying to divert attention from security lapses caused by his firing and imprisoning police and counter-terrorism officers for alleged connections to Gulen.

"While the assertion is wrong and irresponsible, it is not unexpected since Mr. Erdogan blames Mr. Gulen for any and all harm that besets Turkey," according to the statement released by the Alliance for Shared Values.

When former Vice President Joe Biden visited Ankara, the capital of Turkey, in August, Erdogan urged him to take swift action to hand over Gulen.

"In light of this extradition treaty, those individuals should be taken into pretrial detention, they should be arrested, and throughout the trial they need to remain in custody," Erdogan said, speaking about Gulen. "This person, however, is currently managing and directing the terrorist organization where he lives" in Pennsylvania.

Biden responded by touting the U.S. democratic system.

"What possible motive could we have to, in fact, harbor a terrorist? Why would we do that?" Biden said. "It makes absolutely no sense. None whatsoever. We are bound by the law. The president is bound by the law. The court will decide."

Gulen supporters are concerned with what may happen with the change in administrations in Washington. Trump himself has not talked about Gulen, but in an op-ed piece that retired Gen. Michael Flynn wrote for the congressional newspaper The Hill in November, the ousted national security adviser said the U.S. should not offer Gulen "a safe haven," and likened him to Ayatollah Khomeini, the radical cleric who was the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution a generation ago.

Flynn also called for the U.S. to strengthen its relationship with Turkey, which he described as “our strongest ally against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as a source of stability in the region.”

Hendrick, of Loyola University Maryland, said it was too soon to say whether Trump will seek warmer relations with Turkey, because many factors complicate the relationship.

A law firm representing Gulen said in a statement that it hoped Flynn's op-ed was not a policy statement for Trump.

“The extradition process is a serious one, governed by treaty with Turkey that is clear about the steps that need to be taken in such cases. It should not be a political matter," lawyers from the Washington, D.C.-based Steptoe & Johnson LLP said in a statement.

Fethullah Gulen quotes from his statements and writings:

“Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force. I pray to God for Turkey, for Turkish citizens, and for all those currently in Turkey that this situation is resolved peacefully and quickly.”

– July 15, 2016 statement about Turkey coup attempt

“At a time when Western democracies are searching for moderate Muslim voices, I and my friends in the Hizmet movement have taken a clear stance against extremist violence, from the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaeda to brutal executions by the Islamic State to the kidnappings by Boko Haram.”

— July 25, 2016 op-ed in the New York Times

"You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the centers of power. You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey.”

– Leaked sermon that aired in 1999 on Turkish television

“With the endeavors of valued people, like yourselves, who have come together to establish a happy world built on universal values and to set up ‘peace islands’ of the future, I hope that this movement will spread and will carry us to the horizon where cultures and civilizations meet and reach a consensus.”

– Message to Gulen followers at a conference on Nov. 11, 2005

“All acts of terrorism are major blows dealt to peace and serenity. No matter what the motive behind it is, an act of terror can by no means be accepted or approved of. Major acts of terror in past years have not only impacted the geography where they were carried out, but have also damaged world peace.”

– Jan. 29, 2011 statement after an attack at an airport in Moscow

This story was born in the wake of dramatic events last summer occurring half a world away from North Jersey. The Turkish government accused a 75-year-old Islamic cleric living in the Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains of fomenting a brief and bloody rebellion in his native land. The same man, Fethullah Gulen, they’ve long alleged was behind a network of taxpayer-funded charters schools in America.

In the wake of the failed coup, veteran investigative reporters Jean Rimbach, Jeff Pillets and Hannan Adely were asked to look into a group of taxpayer-funded charter schools in North Jersey that arose from the region’s Turkish community.

The assignment took The Record team into the murky world of global geo-politics, where the Ankara government’s stark accusations were met with firm denials from Gulen and his followers. But it also led the team's members to the more familiar turf of public education in New Jersey, where what they found had more immediate implications for our readers, raising questions about oversight of the schools and how tax dollars are being spent.

Our reporting team interviewed people involved with the charter schools and Gulenist groups, education experts and the legal representative for the Turkish government, among others, for this story. The team reviewed tax forms, property records, and paperwork on file with the state’s Department of Education and Economic Development Authority, in addition to other sources.

Rimbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at The Record. She has covered an array of topics during her time, including criminal justice, child welfare and education.

Pillets has honed his skills as a keen government watchdog over a 20-year career, reporting on a variety of topics. Among the numerous honors he has won, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize about corruption in a failed development in the Meadowlands known as EnCap.

Adely has been a reporter at The Record for six years and currently covers Muslim and Arab communities in New Jersey, as well as state education news. Before that, she was a local politics and diversity reporter in the Bronx and in Westchester County, New York.