Illinois man gets 10 years in prison for $14 million fraud tied to COVID-19 loans
CHICAGO — A south suburban man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for a massive $14 million fraud scheme in which he collected kickbacks for submitting more than 1,500 fraudulent loan applications at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 120-month sentence imposed on Sharhabeel Shreiteh was believed to be the longest for any case heard in U.S. District Court in Chicago related to the nation’s Paycheck Protection Program, which funded emergency loans designed to provide financial assistance to small business owners and others during the pandemic but has become a hotbed of fraud and abuse.
Shreiteh, 46, buried her face in her hands and cried after U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold announced the sentence, which is at the top of federal sentencing guidelines and more than three times the sentence requested by the defense.
At the beginning of the two-hour hearing, Shrieteh, a tax officer living in Crete, apologized to the court and her family “for the damage she has caused”.
“I don’t know what to say or do right now,” Shrieteh said. “This is so painful for everyone. I’m speechless.”
Pacold acknowledged his sentence was high but said the level of fraud committed by Shrieteh was “staggering”.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Zenner, Shrieteh submitted more than 1,500 fraudulent PPP loan applications in the names of at least 1,025 customers starting in 2020, resulting in the distribution of approximately $14 million in funds, most of which were forgiven by the U.S. government.
In return, Shrieteh took nearly $740,000 in kickbacks from clients and spent it on luxury vacations and expensive home renovations, Zenner wrote in a recent sentencing memorandum. According to Zenner, he also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to his second wife in his native Palestine, where he built a luxury second home and bought a Mercedes.
In July 2021, Shrieteh’s American husband texted her angrily about spending in Palestine, saying: “You suck!” According to the prosecutor’s file.
“I’ve been working my ass off for 13 years and there’s nothing like what he gets without working for it!!!” he wrote, according to the filing. “You gave him a villa for his kids and now fancy cars??!! …I’m so tired of being lied to!!!”
When fraud linked to PPP loans began making national news, Shrieteh admitted to a co-worker that she had been paid large sums of money and said in a text message, “Mom (expletive) it’s not coffee,” according to prosecutors.
“You are going to put my ass in jail soon,” Shrieteh wrote, according to the prosecution memo. “The stupidest scam in history”
Charges against Shrieteh’s co-defendant, Tracy Mitchell, are pending, records show.
Shrieteh also faces a related tax fraud case before U.S. District Judge John Tharp, according to court records.
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