* Rep. Carol Ammons (D-Urbana) was indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud, false statement and obstruction charges. From the indictment…

As a political candidate, AMMONS organized a political committee, Friends of Carol Ammons, which she registered with the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) around 2013. AMMONS opened a bank account for the Friends of Carol Ammons into which campaign funds were deposited. […]

For state fiscal year 2020, AMMONS, in her role as a state representative, caused a change in an appropriation for a state grant from the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center, which served children from historically underserved neighborhoods, to Hood Vote Neighborhood Transformation (”Hood Vote”), which was focused on reentry and corrections reform. The total state grant to Hood Vote was approximately $605,431.

AMMONS’s daughter was associated with Hood Vote and eventually served as its Program Director. On or about April 2, 2021, AMMONS’s daughter was paid approximately $3,326 in salary by Hood Vote out of the state grant appropriation. Thereafter, the State of Illinois informed AMMONS and Hood Vote that it was an impermissible conflict of interest for AMMONS’s daughter to be paid out of the state grant funds. Consequently, Hood Vote discontinued paying AMMONS’s daughter a salary.

Beginning on or about 2017, and continuing until on or about June 15, 2025, in Champaign County, in the Central District of Illinois, and elsewhere, CAROL AMMONS, defendant herein, knowingly devised a scheme to defraud the State of Illinois, its taxpayers, and donors and contributors to her campaign and to obtain money and property by means of materially false pretenses, promises, and representations, including by omissions and the concealment of material information.

It was a purpose and objective of the scheme that AMMONS enriched herself by converting contributions and donations to her campaign to her personal use. It was a further purpose and objective of the scheme that she concealed from ISBE and law enforcement authorities that she was engaging in such conversion of campaign funds for her personal benefit.

It was also a purpose and objective of the scheme that AMMONS assisted local organizations in obtaining state grants that would benefit her and her daughter financially in violation of Illinois conflict of interest rules. It was a further purpose and objective of the scheme that she concealed from the public, state authorities, and law enforcement authorities that she and her daughter were benefitting financially from state grants that she had a role in obtaining for local organizations.

As part of the scheme, from approximately 2017 through December of 2022, AMMONS caused funds from her Friends of Carol Ammons campaign account to be paid to herself and to family members that were not legitimate payments for services actually rendered to her political committee.

It was a further part of the scheme that, to avoid detection of the payments to herself, AMMONS caused checks to be issued to an individual in excess of the amount for services actually rendered. AMMONS then required the individual to provide cash kickbacks to her, sometimes referred to as ” gifts.” […]

It was part of the scheme that the D-2 forms did not disclose the illegal cash payments to AMMONS. The D-2 forms falsely classified certain expenditures as mileage reimbursements that were later paid back to AMMONS in cash. The D-2 forms omitted certain payments to AMMONS’s family members. Between January of 2019 and November of 2020, the D-2 forms failed to disclose over $25,000 in payments to individuals, a portion of which were paid back to AMMONS in cash. Between March of 2021 and August of 2022, the D-2 forms falsely claimed payments totaling over $15,000 were paid to a consulting firm, when in fact, they were paid to an individual who paid a portion back to AMMONS in cash.

* The indictment also cites text messages prosecutors allege referred to cash kickbacks…

Message from AMMONS

6/18/2022 What’s up? Gift

10/20/2022 I’m home now but can catch you before board at the county building at 6 to grab the gift

12/2/2022 Hey you dropping my gift off today?

* After eight wire fraud counts, the indictment alleges Rep. Ammons made a false statement to the FBI…

COUNT NINE
(False Statement)
On or about May 21, 2024, in Champaign County, in the Central District of Illinois, CAROL AMMONS, defendant herein, willfully and knowingly made a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement and representation in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the Government of the United States, by stating to a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that she had no knowledge regarding a conflict of interest with Hood Vote Neighborhood Transformation paying her daughter from a state grant, when AMMONS knew full well that individuals from the State of Illinois and Hood Vote Neighborhood Transition had previously discussed the conflict of interest with AMMONS. […]

COUNT TEN
(Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice) […]

From at least on or about May 21, 2024, and continuing through at least June 15, 2025, in Champaign County, in the Central District of Illinois, and elsewhere, CAROL AMMONS and AARON AMMONS, defendants herein, knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other and others, both known and unknown to the grand jury, to engage in misleading conduct toward another person with the intent to hinder and prevent the communication to a federal law enforcement officer of information relating to the commission and possible commission of a federal offense, namely, wire fraud as set forth in Counts One through Eight of this Indictment. […]

On or about February 17, 2025, Aaron Ammons advised a potential witness that there is “nothing illegal” about friends giving friends money regarding illegal cash kickbacks paid to Carol Ammons from the Friends of Carol Ammons political committee. Aaron Ammons communicated with the potential witness on a paper note that Aaron Ammons destroyed after showing it to the potential witness.

COUNT ELEVEN
(Obstruction of Justice) […]

On or about June 9, 2025, in Champaign County, in the Central District of Illinois, AARON AMMONS, defendant herein, knowingly and intentionally engaged in misleading conduct toward another person with the intent to hinder and prevent the communication to a federal law enforcement officer of information relating to the commission and possible commission of a federal offense, namely, wire fraud as set forth in Counts One through Eight of this Indictment, in that Aaron AMMONS knowing and intentionally directed a potential witness to “muddy the waters” with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obstruct its ability to trace illegal cash payments to Carol Ammons.