On July 8, 2026, a federal grand jury in central Illinois indicted Illinois Democrat State Representative Carol Ammons for fraud, lying to the FBI, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Her husband, Aaron Ammons, the Champaign County Clerk, was indicted on two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
I’m not surprised that she has been indicted and that it relates to NGO grants. Illinois spends hundreds of millions every year, in some years over a billion dollars, to support non-profits that provide little measurable value. And every year, Democrat state legislators are given millions of our tax money to hand out to entities – park districts, NGOs, cities – as they wish. Plus, many of these Democrats learned from Mike Madigan that it’s okay to clout your relatives and friends into jobs supported by taxpayers. So, the Ammons indictment isn’t shocking. I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t just the start of more indictments.
After all, it takes two to tango, and these non-profit leaders provided the kicks & employment. These non-profits are complicit in the fraud. Why are they not indicted as well? It’s likely because they provided testimony to the grand jury.
The Indictment.
The charges include allegations that Carol Ammons received “kickbacks” from non-profits for funneling state grants to the non-profit, used her position to obtain employment for her daughter, and then tried to cover it all up. Ammons also allegedly misused campaign funds by paying her daughter for work that was not done.
Her daughter, Tatiana, a former Champaign County Board Member, was charged last month with unemployment fraud. Read HERE.
They are the new version of a mob family, taking grifting in public jobs to a new level .As a reminder, Carol Ammons is the race-hustler who suggested that Black students are worth more than white students and proposed race-based educational funding for Illinois universities. Read HERE.
Here are some of the specific allegations from the federal complaint (as noted in this article by the Edgar County Watchdogs):
The Indictment alleges:
- As a state representative, AMMONS assisted local organizations in obtaining state grants. Under Illinois law, it is a conflict of interest for a person in a position of authority to benefit financially from a decision she could make in her official capacity, including through indirect benefits to family members or businesses with which the person is closely associated.
- 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.
- 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 benefiting financially from state grants that she had a role in obtaining for local organizations.
- 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.”
- As part of the scheme, AMMONS paid her daughter approximately $600 per month from her Friends of Carol Ammons campaign fund, totaling approximately $15,585, not in proportion with services actually rendered.
- As part of the scheme, AMMONS caused state grant funds to be paid to herself and her daughter. AMMONS did not assist Hood Vote in renewing its state grant for state fiscal year 2021 after she learned that it could not pay her daughter out of the state grant. As part of the scheme, AMMONS assisted Bridgewater Sullivan Community Life Center (“Bridgewater”) in obtaining state grants in state fiscal year 2021 totaling approximately $612,000, recommended individuals for employment with Bridgewater, and assisted Bridgewater in drafting her daughter’s employment contract with Bridgewater. To avoid detection of the payments to herself, AMMONS required an individual to provide cash kickbacks to AMMONS, sometimes referred to as “gifts,” which were paid out of Bridgewater’s state grant.
- As part of the scheme, AMMONS assisted the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (“IMC”), where she previously worked, with obtaining over $1 million in state grants in 2021 and 2022, including a $700,000 member initiative funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act. From July to October of 2022, while working full-time as the Program Director for Bridgewater and as an Intermittent Public Service Representative with the Illinois Secretary of State, AMMONS’ s daughter was paid approximately $9,990 by IMC as a digital marketing coordinator, a position which was funded by the state grant that AMMONS facilitated.
- As a result of the scheme, AMMONS and her daughter received financial benefits in excess of $100,000.
The Edgar County Watchdogs also pointed out that:
The Ammons are not strangers to the court systems Carol Ammons was alleged in shoplifting, which was later dropped, and Aaron Ammons received a pardon for his crimes in the last days of Governor Quinn’s term of office, courtesy of his wife Carol, which eventually enabled him to become elected as Champaign County Clerk.
Again, I’m not surprised at all that Carol Ammons is indicted for fraud, and I am even less surprised that it is related to state grants going to non-profits – specifically non-profits with euphemistic names that provide soft services for which there is no way to measure impact.
Here’s what you should know:
1. Democrat members of the IL state legislature are given “Member Initiative” money to hand out to organizations they personally want to support – park districts, certain schools, non-profits, etc. These earmarks are a boondoggle and should cease.
2. Non-profit spending in the FY 2027 budget is over $768 million this year. Here’s a link to the list of grantees in Illinois. https://breakthrough-ideas.com/doge-il/non-profit-grants-in-illinois-fy-2027-budget
3. In 2014, the state enacted the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) to do exactly what the title suggests and force grant compliance with federal statutes as well. GATA was, in part, a response to the $50 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative (NRI) that Governor Quinn rolled out just ahead of his 2010 election. That program paid black kids to walk in parades as part of a violence prevention program. NRI was a complete failure and had the appearance of paying people for votes in a tough election year.
4. Over a decade after passage, GATA is a failure, as evidenced in the Ammons case and a convoluted website that doesn’t match other data.
5. State databases tracking grants almost never match. Between the budget, GATA, and the Comptroller’s site, there is almost no consistency.
6. Example: In the Ammons complaint, Bridgewater Sullivan Community Life Center is said to have received $612,000. GATA only shows a contract amount of $165,000. The Comptroller’s vendor lookup shows no info.
7. Many of these NGOs operate as political operations, blurring the lines between advocacy and political outreach – the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is an example of this. We need to stop giving discretionary money to NGOs. If they provide a service, it must be contracted for on a specific per-client basis – like services to the developmentally disabled generally are.
In the wake of the indictment, Speaker Emmanuel “Chris” Welch has stripped Ammons of her committee assignments and removed her from all meetings of the Democrat House Caucus. Meanwhile, Republicans are calling for her resignation and stronger ethics laws.
Stronger ethics laws may help, but they are not a cure-all. For example, there should be a law that prevents any entity receiving taxpayer money from hiring any immediate family member of an elected or appointed official or staff member who has control over the use of tax money to that entity.
It would also help if voters simply elected ethical people.
Another reform would be that any entity receiving tax money is subject to FOIA laws.
But what is really needed is NO MORE FUNDING NGOs unless there is a specific per-client service that is measurable. No more money for Maddie’s Mitten March, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (getting $4.325 million in FY27 budget). African American Family Association ($705,000), or the Islamic Community Center of Des Plaines ($200,000) – and many, many more.
Let’s be clear – Non-profits are free to organize and fundraise with the rules of the IRS. That does not mean taxpayers should feel any obligation to fund them, especially for benefit counseling, youth programs, parent mentoring programs, dance and art classes, immigrant rights infographics, “mental health” services that are generalized in nature, cultural awareness for specific ethnicities, and more. Just click around our database, explained below and start to look at these entities. Many are co-located with churches or headquartered out of someone’s home. Many have partners that are also recipients of tax dollars. Many have wealthy corporate backers so they shouldn’t need tax money to operate. In many cases they are receiving tax money for buildings and other infrastructure. Why are we on the hook for providing physical spaces for non=profits that must be maintained?
Illinois is broke because we spend too much. These are easy grants to simply cut. If they can’t operate without government money, than they aren’t really a non-governmental organization.
We are out with our latest analysis on NGO spending in the FY 27 budget. You’ll want to look at our database and see where your money is going – and being wasted.
.Non-Profit Grants in Illinois FY 2027 Budget
Our analysis of the FY2027 budget is complete and uploaded to our website. This year we only put the non-profit grantees in the budget online. In previous years, we included specific grants going to park districts, municipalities, and chambers of commerce. Some of that data will be added in a separate listing
“We are in difficult times; this is a hard budget.”
Those were the Democratic Leader and Chief Budgeteer in the House, Robyn Gabel’s words, when she testified in committee about the Democratic FY 2026 spending plan last year.
Gabel basically repeated herself this year, saying this was a “tight” budget year as she briefed the FY2027 budget in committee.
That doesn’t pass the smell test. They passed a record spending plan last year and beat that record this year. That spending relies on $800 million in new taxes. Does that sound like a “tight” budget?
It also isn’t a “tight” budget when the Democrats found hundreds of millions to once again send money to non-profits, private chambers of commerce, park districts in wealthy communities, and cultural centers.
Breakthrough Ideas has again extracted from the budget document NGO and other spending and put it in a spreadsheet for all to see.
We had to do this because the state refuses to produce a budget document that is readable and understandable. For NGOs, we separated each grant line and then organized them alphabetically by grant recipient, so you can see entirely what money is in total going to a particular entity.
Important to note – this budget, as presented, was voted on, passed, and signed into law. However, that does not mean the listed entities will receive the money. The budget is a legacy document that is simply adjusted and added to every year. There are entities listed that are no longer in business, like Lincoln College, that are still shown to be receiving an allotment. Other resources, such as the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) website and the Comptroller’s website, in some cases show no funds going to the entity.
A well-designed system would show all things matching – from the budget to the GATA database to payments from the Comptroller. That is not happening.
The FY 2026 budget document is 3,703 pages and can be found at this link: HB 111
This data is composed of over 1,100 lines.
The grand total shown in this table is $768,096,139.
The total FY 2027 Budget is $55.94 billion, up from $55.080 in FY 26.
Here are some more articles that discuss the budget:
From Illinois Policy Institute
From Center Square on the tax increases