Aurora school board member charged with $1.3M kickback over air purifier deal
Annette Johnson, former president of East Aurora School District 131, faces federal fraud charges for allegedly taking a $1.3M kickback to steer a $2.7M contract.
Former East Aurora board president indicted over alleged bribery scheme
Annette Johnson, a current member and former president of the East Aurora School District 131 Board of Education, has been charged with federal fraud after allegedly accepting a $1.3 million kickback in exchange for steering a $2.7 million air purifier contract to a favoured reseller, news.wttw.com reports.
The charges stem from a 14-page federal indictment centred on events in September 2021, when the district approved a contract to purchase wearable air purifiers. Prosecutors allege Johnson used her position as board president to push fellow board members to sign off on the deal, while concealing that she held a personal and economic interest in the outcome.
According to the indictment, Johnson arranged meetings between the reseller and district officials, and was provided with bullet points about the purifiers to use when lobbying her colleagues. She then spoke in favour of the product at the board's September 2021 meeting and voted to approve the contract — without disclosing her financial stake.
Two months after the contract was approved, the district cut a $2.7 million cheque to the company using federal COVID-19 relief funding. Days later, Johnson received the $1.3 million payment, described in the indictment as a "commission."
The alleged scheme did not end there. The indictment states Johnson later pushed for the approval of a further $201,077 payment to the same company in 2023, attributed to an "extended warranty" for the purifiers.
Johnson denied all wrongdoing in an emailed statement. "I want to be unequivocally clear: I maintain my innocence of the criminal charges brought against me, and I intend to vigorously defend myself through the judicial process," she said. She added that she would not allow the allegations to "define me or erase the years of service and commitment I have devoted to this community."
East Aurora School District 131 Superintendent Robert Halverson and the board acknowledged the indictment in a statement on Wednesday, calling the allegations "incredibly serious and concerning." They noted that Johnson, like all defendants, is entitled to a presumption of innocence, and confirmed that no other board member or district employee is named in the indictment. "Our teachers, administrators and staff remain focused on educating, supporting and serving our students each day," the statement read.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)