Ex-School Board President Indicted in Alleged $1.3 Million Kickback Over $2.7 Million COVID-Funded Air Purifier Deal
6th November 2026
A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted Annette Johnson, the former president of the East Aurora School District 131 Board of Education, on charges that she entered the district into a $2.7 million air purifier purchase in 2021 in exchange for a $1.3 million payment. Johnson, 63, of Aurora, faces 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, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said. She remains a member of the board.
Prosecutors say that Johnson, then board president, voted for the purchase, and that the district paid for the purifiers with COVID-era federal grant money. Unbeknownst to the other board members, they say, Johnson and the vendor had agreed that the vendor would pay more than $1 million of the sale proceeds to a company owned by her boyfriend, where she served as chief financial officer.
Within days of a board vote in which Johnson participated and approved payment, prosecutors say, the vendor mailed a $1.3 million check labeled “commission” to that company. Later, she allegedly pushed the board to approve a $201,077 payment to the vendor in 2023 for an “extended warranty” on the purifiers. The US Attorney’s office does not name the vendor nor the company in the complaint, and Johnson was the only person indicted.
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