Suburban Chicago Man Sentenced to Six and a Half Years in Prison for $3.3 Million COVID-Relief Fraud

Summary

A March 23, 2026 press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announcing that U.S. District Judge Jeremy C. Daniel sentenced Francesco Distefano, 29, of Addison, Illinois, to 78 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud. The release states that in 2020 and 2021 Distefano and co-defendant Sargis Urumieh obtained PPP and EIDL loans and grants for companies with false employee, revenue and payroll figures, causing a loss of more than $3.3 million. It says Distefano also collected more than $37,500 in Illinois unemployment benefits and bought a Lamborghini Huracan, Maserati Ghibli, Land Rover Evoque SE and Porsche 911, all seized and forfeited. Urumieh, 58, of Glendale, Calif.,, was scheduled for sentencing on July 22, 2026.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

CHICAGO – A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for scheming to fraudulently obtain more than $3.3 million in small business loans and grants under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).  Under the leadership of United States Attorney Andrew S. Boutros and consistent with the Administration’s priorities to identify, investigate, and prosecute criminal fraud in the federal government entitlement and benefit programs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois is taking a fresh look at Covid-19 fraud.
In 2020 and 2021, FRANCESCO DISTEFANO and a co-defendant, SARGIS URUMIEH, engaged in fraud related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), two sources of relief under the CARES Act.  The pair applied for and obtained loans and grants for two companies where Urumieh served as a corporate officer.  Distefano also applied for and obtained loans for a technology company that he owned and controlled.  The applications contained numerous false statements and misrepresentations regarding the companies’ operations, including the number of employees, gross revenues, and payroll expenses.  As a result of the fraud, Distefano and Urumieh caused a loss to the federal government of more than $3.3 million.
Distefano also fraudulently collected more than $37,500 in unemployment benefits from the state of Illinois in his name and the name of a relative while simultaneously receiving the Covid-relief loan proceeds and continuing to work for his technology company.  Distefano used his Covid-relief and unemployment fraud proceeds to purchase, among other things, a Lamborghini Huracan, Maserati Ghibli, Land Rover Evoque SE, and Porsche 911, all of which were seized by law enforcement and forfeited to the government.
Distefano, 29, of Addison, Ill., pleaded guilty last year to a federal wire fraud charge.  On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeremy C. Daniel sentenced Distefano to 78 months in federal prison.
Urumieh, 58, of Glendale, Calif., also pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge. Urumieh is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Daniel on July 22, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.
U.S. Attorney Boutros announced Distefano’s sentence along with Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Adam Jobes, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago, and Brett Lehnert, Acting Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General.
“As the nation was struggling with the Covid pandemic, the defendant was scheming to defraud the PPP, EIDL, and unemployment programs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Snell argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum in Distefano’s case.  “It was not the result of a momentary lack in judgment, but a continuing series of decisions, motivated by greed.”
Anyone with information about suspected Covid-19 fraud can report it to the Department of Justice by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud at (866) 720-5721, or by submitting an online complaint
here
.

File and source

File

2026-03-23_federal-judge-sentences-suburban-chicago-man-to-six-and-a-half-years-in_d71e0e87.md.txt

Size

3,204 bytes

SHA-256

529bd23e7b8ebdfe6043fb7b9254edc4eaf2a45b8d769d20f9f92f7c470966ca

Our copy

2026-03-23_federal-judge-sentences-suburban-chicago-man-to-six-and-a-half-years-in_d71e0e87.md.txt

Original

www.justice.gov