Illinois School Board Ex-President Indicted in $1.3 Million Kickback Scheme

There is always some good news to be found, if you know where to look. This time, it's in Illinois, where a former president of the East Aurora, Illinois, School District 131 Board of Education, Annette Johnson, has been indicted on charges of mail and wire fraud. That's a good day's work for the FBI.

🚨#INDICTMENT: The former President of the East Aurora, Ill. School District 131 Board of Education, Annette Johnson, is accused of directing $1.3 million to a company for which she was the Chief Financial Officer as a kickback or bribe to approve the purchase of air purifiers from a school district vendor. To read more about this investigation, please visit: https://t.co/hcMuzCgTvr. The FBI often relies on information from the public and law enforcement partners to begin investigations into suspected incidents of fraud. If you have a tip, submit it to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or online at https://t.co/YsyApSvbbb. https://t.co/v5x5m9rLVP

— FBI Chicago (@FBIChicago) November 5, 2026

The post states in full:

#INDICTMENT: The former President of the East Aurora, Ill. School District 131 Board of Education, Annette Johnson, is accused of directing $1.3 million to a company for which she was the Chief Financial Officer as a kickback or bribe to approve the purchase of air purifiers from a school district vendor. To read more about this investigation, please visit: http://justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/federal-indictment-charges-former-president-suburban-chicago-school-district-board. 

The FBI often relies on information from the public and law enforcement partners to begin investigations into suspected incidents of fraud. If you have a tip, submit it to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or online at http://tips.fbi.gov.

There's also an official press release on the charges, which gives us a little more detail.

The indictment accuses ANNETTE JOHNSON of steering District 131 to purchase air purifiers from the vendor for approximately $2.7 million in 2021 and voting in favor of the purchase.  District 131 paid for the air purifiers using Covid-era federal grant funds, the indictment states.  Unbeknownst to the other District 131 board members, Johnson and the vendor had agreed that the vendor would pay a company owned by Johnson’s boyfriend—and where Johnson worked as the Chief Financial Officer—more than $1 million of the proceeds of the sale, the indictment states.  Within days of a Board vote, in which Johnson participated and approved payment from District 131 to the vendor, the vendor mailed a $1.3 million check, labeled “commission,” to the company where Johnson was the Chief Financial Officer, the indictment states. 

Johnson was the President of the District 131 Board of Education at the time of the alleged fraud scheme, and she currently remains a member of the Board.

The indictment charges Johnson, 63, of Aurora, Ill., with two counts of honest services mail fraud and one count of honest services wire fraud, each of which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.  Arraignment in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.

There's a reason that Illinois seems to be a synonym for political corruption. An old friend of mine who has spent most of his life in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago area) used to joke that Illinois governors always did two terms, one in the governor's office and one in the state penitentiary. But this case seems especially egregious; we can certainly discuss the desirability of government involvement in education at all. In this case, this person stands accused (and is still entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence) of abusing her position to funnel COVID-era relief funds, presumably intended for the schools, to a personal enterprise run by her significant other — and an enterprise in which she was personally involved.

That's pretty egregious.

Still, these people seem to always get caught sooner or later. Kudos to the FBI and all the officers and authorities involved in catching this accused fraudster.

Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians. 

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