So this guy actually thought he could get away with this, huh? SMH.
Hadi Isbaih of Palos Heights, IL, was charged in an indictment returned Monday in the Northern District of Illinois with four counts of wire fraud for allegedly fraudulently assisting customers in obtaining millions of dollars in loans under the CARES Act, authorities said.
“Falsifying documents to fraudulently gain access to SBA program funds is unconscionable,” said Sharon Johnson, special agent-in-charge of the Central Region of the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General.
Not good:
According to the indictment, Isbaih, 39, owned and operated Flash Tax Service Inc., a tax and investment consulting business in Bridgeview, Ill. From April to October 2020, Isbaih submitted on behalf of hundreds of Flash Tax customers Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications that contained materially false statements and misrepresentations about the customers’ businesses, such as gross revenues, expenses, and number of employees, the indictment states. Isbaih’s false statements and misrepresentations caused millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained PPP and EIDL funds to be disbursed to those customers, the charges allege.
Isbaih charged Flash Tax customers an upfront fee of approximately several hundred dollars before he submitted the fraudulent applications on the customers’ behalf, the indictment states. If the customers received the PPP or EIDL funds based on those applications, Isbaih charged the customers an additional fee of approximately $1,000, the indictment states.
If convicted, Isbaih faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count.
