A former Chicago Public Schools principal and an ex-CPS employee plead guilty to fraud in federal court for their roles in a kickback scheme that took thousands from local school districts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Antonio Ross and Alfonzo Lewis both signed plea deals Tuesday after being indicted just over a year ago, according to court records.
The two allegedly created companies to apply as vendors for professional service contracts with District 65, submitting “false and fraudulent” documents to win them and then hid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to then-district superintendent Devon Horton, according to prosecutors.
Ross, then serving as Hyde Park Academy High School principal, obtained nearly $120,000 from District 65 and paid Horton nearly $42,000 from the proceeds, prosecutors said.
The scheme ran from August 2020 to June 2023, court documents said.
Lewis, who was the athletic director at Hyde Park Academy under Ross at the time, allegedly received $24,000 from the district — about a quarter of which he gave to Horton. Both admitted their companies didn’t perform some services they were paid for.
Lewis, according to a CPS spokesperson, had been suspended pending the outcome of the federal investigation.
In addition to the kickback scheme with District 65, Ross awarded Horton’s company a service contract with CPS and approved $10,000 in false invoices for services by Horton’s company that were never completed, according to court documents.
Ross was dismissed by CPS in 2023 for “engaging in public benefits fraud by deliberately obtaining a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan and PPP loan forgiveness through fraudulent means,” according to his dismissal proceedings in front of a state board hearing officer.
Horton, previously a superintendent of the DeKalb County School District in Georgia, was placed on administrative leave last fall, according to a statement on the district’s website. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud, embezzlement, and tax charges earlier this month, according to prosecutors.
In January, he was arrested and charged on a felony count of aggravated assault, strangulation and a misdemeanor count of cruelty to children in the third degree.
District 65 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.