Chicago, IL – An Evanston businessman was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison for orchestrating a wide-ranging fraud scheme that netted more than $55 million in commercial loans and COVID-19 relief funds, federal prosecutors announced.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Rahul Shah, 56, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay $23,226,005 in restitution for defrauding federally insured financial institutions and exploiting the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
According to court records, Shah owned and operated several information-technology companies in the Chicago area and fraudulently obtained loans and lines of credit for which he was not eligible. Prosecutors said he submitted falsified bank statements inflating deposits, fabricated balance sheets overstating revenues, and forged audited financial statements to lenders. Shah later defaulted on at least one loan and one line of credit.
Federal authorities said Shah also submitted a fraudulent $441,138 PPP loan application guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The application allegedly overstated payroll expenses and included falsified IRS documents. Prosecutors said Shah used stolen identities in the application, listing individuals who never received payments from the company.
Investigators determined that the IRS Forms 941 Shah submitted to the lender did not match filings submitted to federal and state tax authorities, which showed significantly lower payroll expenses.
In July 2025, a federal jury convicted Shah of 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.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General. Prosecutors from the DOJ Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois handled the case.
Federal officials said the Fraud Section has prosecuted more than 200 defendants nationwide for PPP-related fraud since the CARES Act was enacted.
This article was produced by a journalist and may include AI-assisted input. All content is reviewed for accuracy and fairness.
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