Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
14 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Northern District of Illinois, naming 14 defendants. By program: 10 PPP, 3 EIDL, 1 other or unclassified. 2 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 14 of them, from $20,833 to $55,000,000. Source dates run from 2022-09-06 to 2026-05-19.
Cases
14 defendants · 2 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rahul Shah | Chicago Businessman Sentenced for Role in Bank Fraud and Pandemic-Relief Fraud Schemes | PPP | seven counts of bank fraud, five counts of making false statements to a financial institution, two counts of money laundering and two counts of aggravated identity theft | $55,000,000 sought (release: over $55 million in commercial loans and lines of credit) | sentenced | 72 months | 2026-01-15 |
| Milica Sumakovic | Chicago Woman Sentenced to Prison for Participating in $16 Million Covid-Relief Fraud | EIDL | wire fraud, money laundering | $16,000,000 total scheme proceeds (SBA EIDL disbursements) | guilty plea | 18 months | 2024-05-01 |
| Sharhabeel Shreiteh | Illinois Businessman Has Been Sentenced to Ten Years in Federal Prison for Fraudulently Obtaining $14 Million | PPP/UI | wire fraud | $14,000,000 amount obtained | plea | 120 months | 2026-03-18 |
| ZISHAN ALVI | Chicago Lab Owner Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison in Connection With $14 Million Covid-19 Testing Fraud Scheme | Unclassified pandemic relief | one count of wire fraud | $14,000,000 obtained (release: HRSA paid the laboratory more than $14 million because of the fraudulent claims) | sentenced | 84 months | 2025-06-18 |
| Marko Nikolic | Judgment in A Criminal Case, Marko Nikolic, Case Number — No. 1:20-cr-00750 (Dkt. 213, N.D. Ill.) | EIDL | $6,967,000 restitution ordered | 50 months | 2024-01-24 | ||
| FRANCESCO DISTEFANO | USA v. Distefano — U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois | PPP/EIDL/UI | false statements, wire fraud | $3,300,000 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 78 months | 2026-03-23 |
| Quamdeen Amuwo | Chicago Man Sentenced to Five and a Half Years in Federal Prison for $2.9 Million Covid-Relief Fraud | EIDL | false statements, wire fraud | $2,900,000 obtained | sentenced | 66 months | 2024-01-05 |
| Samuel W. Jackson | Man Sentenced to a Year and a Half in Federal Prison for COVID-Relief Fraud | PPP, EIDL | false statements, wire fraud, money laundering | $2,000,000 scheming to fraudulently obtain | guilty plea | 18 months | 2025-08-27 |
| Feroz Jalal | Suburban Chicago Man Sentenced to More Than Five Years in Prison for $1.5 Million Covid-Relief Fraud | PPP | bank fraud, money laundering | $1,644,000 PPP loan proceeds disbursed (applications totaled $1.792 million); restitution "more than $1.5 million" | plea | 62 months | 2025-02-19 |
| Yoshimi Henry | UI/PPP/EIDL | Unemployment Insurance (UI) fraud, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud, and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) fraud | $860,000 loss | guilty plea | 18 months | 2025-10-06 | |
| Christopher Scott | Suburban Chicago Man Sentenced to Nearly Six Years in Prison for Covid-Relief Fraud | PPP, EIDL | false statements, wire fraud | $567,333 obtained | plea | 70 months | 2025-08-21 |
| CARLOS SMITH | USA v. Smith — U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois | PPP/EIDL | aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, money laundering | $421,900 proceeds received | plea | 48 months | 2023-02-27 |
| Absalom Hall | PPP | Wire fraud; tax fraud; money laundering | $85,401 obtained | plea | 36 months | 2026-05-19 | |
| Tyjuan Lighthall | Man Sentenced to More than Five Years for Illegally Possessing Loaded Gun and Engaging in Covid-Relief Fraud | PPP | felon in possession of a firearm, making false statements to obtain PPP loan | $20,833 proceeds received | plea | 63 months | 2022-09-06 |
Data and method
Each row is one row of the pandemic-relief sentences table, printed as that table prints it: defendant, program, charge, amount and its basis, disposition, and the date of the source the row was read from. A blank cell is a blank cell in the table. The sentence column states the months of imprisonment the table records, or the years of probation where it records no custodial term. A case page is linked only where a case page in this district names the defendant; 2 of the 14 rows do. District is the table’s own district field, resolved to this court. Rows whose district field names only a state with more than one federal district are not placed on any district page. A date the table writes in another form is restated as YYYY-MM-DD; a cell that is not a date is printed as it stands. An amount of $1 billion or more is left out: those cells carry a program appropriation quoted in the source release, not a sum attributed to the defendant. Some defendants have more than one row because the table read them from more than one source.
Court hub: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.