From the U.S. Attorney:
SUBURBAN CHICAGO MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN FIVE YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR $1.5 MILLION COVID-RELIEF FRAUD
Fraud
CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a suburban Chicago man to more than five years in prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $1.5 million in small business loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Over a five-month period in 2021, FEROZ JALAL participated in a scheme to defraud banks and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program allowed qualifying small businesses to receive low-interest, government-backed loans to cover a temporary loss of revenue during the Covid pandemic.
As part of the scheme, Jalal submitted to lenders and the SBA at least a dozen applications for PPP loans on behalf of businesses that he and others purportedly owned.
The applications contained false statements and misrepresentations concerning the purported entities’ employees, revenues, costs, and statuses of operations.
In support of his applications, Jalal provided, among other things, fake IRS tax filings and bogus spreadsheets that purported to document the companies’ payroll expenses.
Jalal and co-schemers submitted fraudulent applications for PPP loans in amounts totaling $1.792 million, causing $1.644 million to be disbursed by lenders.
Jalal, 51, of Niles, Ill., pleaded guilty last year to bank fraud and money laundering charges.
On Feb. 11, 2025, U.S. District Judge John F. Kness sentenced Jalal to five years and two months in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution to the SBA.
The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of Homeland Security Investigations. Substantial assistance was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes.
Anyone with information about attempted Covid-relief fraud can report it to the Department of Justice by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud at (866) 720-5721, or by filing an online complaint at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
