Georgia
School chief resigns after indictment alleging kickback scheme in Illinois
ATLANTA (AP) — The superintendent of Georgia’s third-largest school district is resigning after being indicted on federal charges alleging he ran a kickback scheme and stole money from a smaller school district in suburban Chicago.
The DeKalb County school board on Wednesday accepted the resignation of Devon Horton effective Nov. 15. Board members had been facing calls to fire Horton.
School board members also voted Wednesday to hire an auditor to examine spending under Horton.
Horton has been making $360,000 a year. He will be paid through Nov. 15, said spokesperson Carla Parker, but will receive no payments after that date.
A federal grand jury in Chicago indicted Horton last week on 17 counts including wire fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion. The indictment alleges Horton issued more than $280,000 in contracts to three friends and received more than $80,000 in kickbacks from 2020 through 2023 while he was superintendent of the Evanston-Skokie school district. That district had 5,800 students in grades K-8 last year.
Indicted along with Horton were three other men who prosecutors allege were part of the scheme: Antonio Ross of Chicago; Samuel Ross of Berwyn, Illinois; and Alfonzo Lewis of Chicago.
The indictment alleges that the four men created companies and billed for services they didn’t provide in order to bilk money from the Evanston-Skokie and Chicago school districts. In addition to $283,500 from Evanston-Skokie, the indictment alleges that Antonio Ross, then principal of Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago, issued a fraudulent contract to a Horton-controlled company that netted Horton $10,000.
Horton tried to hire Antonio Ross after Horton became superintendent in DeKalb County, but Ross declined the job amid questions about the business relationship between the two men.
Horton also faces charges that he stole more than $30,000 from the Evanston-Skokie district in 2022 and 2023 by using his district purchasing card to make personal purchases. Horton is also charged with tax evasion over allegations that he didn’t report the kickbacks and personal purchases on his income tax returns.
Because of the large amount of money allegedly stolen and the fact that Horton was a public official, he could face more than 10 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines if convicted.
Prosecutors seek to have all four men forfeit the money in question.
New York
Man convicted of illegal straw donor scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City man has been convicted of conducting an illegal straw donor scheme in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A federal jury in Brooklyn found Xinyue “Daniel” Lou guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of making contributions in the name of others, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella.
The verdict was reached after a trial that lasted roughly six days; jurors deliberated for about three hours, the office said.
Lou, a 59-year-old resident of the New York City borough of Staten Island, remains free on bond. He’s due to be sentenced Feb, 24, 2026, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Nocella, who was appointed by Trump earlier this year, declined to comment on the verdict through a spokesperson. The White House deferred to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately comment.
Trump’s campaign isn’t accused of wrongdoing. Prosecutors say the campaign was misled by Lou, who they say hid the illegal donations.
They said Lou had sought to raise $25,000 in smaller donations in order to earn two VIP tickets to a March 2019 breakfast at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The special tickets would earn him and a guest a photo-op with the Republican incumbent.
Lou recruited individuals to make donations to Trump’s campaign in their own names, with the promise that he would reimburse them. Prosecutors say the night before the event, he made good on that vow, personally passing out thousands of dollars in cash to the individuals.
“Status. Perks. Access. That’s why the defendant planned and carried out the illegal fundraising scheme,” Assistant United States Attorney Meredith Arfa said in her closing argument last week, according to a court transcript.
Lou’s lawyers, who didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday, maintained he didn’t know it was illegal to reimburse donors for campaign contributions at the time.
Marissa Sherman, one of his lawyers, said in her closing argument that Lou made no secret of his plans, announcing in a public WeChat post with hundreds of people that anyone who wanted to go to the fundraiser would have their contribution covered.
“What Mr. Lou’s words and actions at the time of the fundraiser show is that he thought this was a great opportunity for the Chinese American community to show their support for President Trump, that this was a great opportunity for Mr. Lou to try and prove his worth and value to the Trump campaign,” she said, according to a court transcript. “And above all else, to get a photograph with the political leader he so admired.”
New York
Judge blocks Trump cuts, restores $34M in anti-terror funds for transit system
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration from withholding nearly $34 million in funding earmarked to protect New York’s transit system from terrorist attacks.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said in a ruling Thursday that the Republican administration’s decision, based on the Big Apple’s “sanctuary city” protections for immigrants in the United States illegally, was “arbitrary, capricious, and a blatant violation of the law.”
The post-9/11 Transit Security Grant Program, Kaplan noted in granting a permanent injunction, was created with instructions that money be allocated solely on the basis of terrorism risk. The judge had previously issued an order temporarily freezing the move.
The state sued Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency after they said last month that they were eliminating funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s transit system.
A FEMA official disclosed in a court filing that the transit authority “did not receive funding because the applicant is based in New York City, a designated Sanctuary Jurisdiction city.”
The MTA said its allocation, the largest of any transit agency, pays for targeted counterterrorism patrols, security equipment, infrastructure enhancements, cybersecurity technology and weapons detection technologies.
School chief resigns after indictment alleging kickback scheme in Illinois
ATLANTA (AP) — The superintendent of Georgia’s third-largest school district is resigning after being indicted on federal charges alleging he ran a kickback scheme and stole money from a smaller school district in suburban Chicago.
The DeKalb County school board on Wednesday accepted the resignation of Devon Horton effective Nov. 15. Board members had been facing calls to fire Horton.
School board members also voted Wednesday to hire an auditor to examine spending under Horton.
Horton has been making $360,000 a year. He will be paid through Nov. 15, said spokesperson Carla Parker, but will receive no payments after that date.
A federal grand jury in Chicago indicted Horton last week on 17 counts including wire fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion. The indictment alleges Horton issued more than $280,000 in contracts to three friends and received more than $80,000 in kickbacks from 2020 through 2023 while he was superintendent of the Evanston-Skokie school district. That district had 5,800 students in grades K-8 last year.
Indicted along with Horton were three other men who prosecutors allege were part of the scheme: Antonio Ross of Chicago; Samuel Ross of Berwyn, Illinois; and Alfonzo Lewis of Chicago.
The indictment alleges that the four men created companies and billed for services they didn’t provide in order to bilk money from the Evanston-Skokie and Chicago school districts. In addition to $283,500 from Evanston-Skokie, the indictment alleges that Antonio Ross, then principal of Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago, issued a fraudulent contract to a Horton-controlled company that netted Horton $10,000.
Horton tried to hire Antonio Ross after Horton became superintendent in DeKalb County, but Ross declined the job amid questions about the business relationship between the two men.
Horton also faces charges that he stole more than $30,000 from the Evanston-Skokie district in 2022 and 2023 by using his district purchasing card to make personal purchases. Horton is also charged with tax evasion over allegations that he didn’t report the kickbacks and personal purchases on his income tax returns.
Because of the large amount of money allegedly stolen and the fact that Horton was a public official, he could face more than 10 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines if convicted.
Prosecutors seek to have all four men forfeit the money in question.
New York
Man convicted of illegal straw donor scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City man has been convicted of conducting an illegal straw donor scheme in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A federal jury in Brooklyn found Xinyue “Daniel” Lou guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of making contributions in the name of others, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella.
The verdict was reached after a trial that lasted roughly six days; jurors deliberated for about three hours, the office said.
Lou, a 59-year-old resident of the New York City borough of Staten Island, remains free on bond. He’s due to be sentenced Feb, 24, 2026, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Nocella, who was appointed by Trump earlier this year, declined to comment on the verdict through a spokesperson. The White House deferred to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately comment.
Trump’s campaign isn’t accused of wrongdoing. Prosecutors say the campaign was misled by Lou, who they say hid the illegal donations.
They said Lou had sought to raise $25,000 in smaller donations in order to earn two VIP tickets to a March 2019 breakfast at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The special tickets would earn him and a guest a photo-op with the Republican incumbent.
Lou recruited individuals to make donations to Trump’s campaign in their own names, with the promise that he would reimburse them. Prosecutors say the night before the event, he made good on that vow, personally passing out thousands of dollars in cash to the individuals.
“Status. Perks. Access. That’s why the defendant planned and carried out the illegal fundraising scheme,” Assistant United States Attorney Meredith Arfa said in her closing argument last week, according to a court transcript.
Lou’s lawyers, who didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday, maintained he didn’t know it was illegal to reimburse donors for campaign contributions at the time.
Marissa Sherman, one of his lawyers, said in her closing argument that Lou made no secret of his plans, announcing in a public WeChat post with hundreds of people that anyone who wanted to go to the fundraiser would have their contribution covered.
“What Mr. Lou’s words and actions at the time of the fundraiser show is that he thought this was a great opportunity for the Chinese American community to show their support for President Trump, that this was a great opportunity for Mr. Lou to try and prove his worth and value to the Trump campaign,” she said, according to a court transcript. “And above all else, to get a photograph with the political leader he so admired.”
New York
Judge blocks Trump cuts, restores $34M in anti-terror funds for transit system
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration from withholding nearly $34 million in funding earmarked to protect New York’s transit system from terrorist attacks.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said in a ruling Thursday that the Republican administration’s decision, based on the Big Apple’s “sanctuary city” protections for immigrants in the United States illegally, was “arbitrary, capricious, and a blatant violation of the law.”
The post-9/11 Transit Security Grant Program, Kaplan noted in granting a permanent injunction, was created with instructions that money be allocated solely on the basis of terrorism risk. The judge had previously issued an order temporarily freezing the move.
The state sued Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency after they said last month that they were eliminating funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s transit system.
A FEMA official disclosed in a court filing that the transit authority “did not receive funding because the applicant is based in New York City, a designated Sanctuary Jurisdiction city.”
The MTA said its allocation, the largest of any transit agency, pays for targeted counterterrorism patrols, security equipment, infrastructure enhancements, cybersecurity technology and weapons detection technologies.
