Former East Aurora School Board President Annette Johnson Indicted in $1.3 Million Honest Services Fraud Scheme
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced that Annette Johnson, former president of the Board of Education of East Aurora School District 131 in Aurora, Kane County, Illinois, has been indicted on federal charges alleging she directed $1.3 million to a company for which she was the chief financial officer, as a kickback or bribe in exchange for using her position to approve the purchase of air purifiers from a school district vendor. The indictment was returned on Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.
The indictment accuses 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. Unbeknownst to the other board members, Johnson and the vendor had agreed that the vendor would pay a company owned by Johnson's boyfriend — where Johnson worked as chief financial officer — more than $1 million of the proceeds of the sale.
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 president of the District 131 Board of Education at the time of the alleged scheme and currently remains a member of the board.
Johnson, 63, of Aurora, is charged with two counts of honest services mail fraud and one count of honest services wire fraud, each punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. Her arraignment in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.
The indictment was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Scott Wingle, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General's Central Regional Office; and Ryan Whalen, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Chicago Field Office. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward A. Liva, Jr. and Adam Rosenbloom. An indictment is only an allegation; Johnson is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国教育部总部林登·约翰逊大楼（资料图）。本案由教育部监察长办公室参与调查。ajay_suresh摄，CC BY 2.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / The U.S. Department of Education's Lyndon Baines Johnson Building in Washington (file photo). The department's inspector general took part in the investigation. Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
