Cook County PPP Loan Fraud Lawyers

Cook County PPP Loan Fraud Lawyers

Seven people conspired to steal $16 million from American pandemic relief programs. They submitted more than 300 fraudulent PPP applications. When federal agents came to arrest them, only three were home. Four had already fled the country – back to Serbia, back to Montenegro, back to wherever they came from.

As of 2025, four defendants in Chicago’s biggest PPP fraud case remain fugitives. Maja Nikolic. Nebojsa Simeunovic. Mijajlo Stanisic. Dorde Todorovic. They’re overseas. They’re being hunted. International extradition requests are pending. The American justice system has a very long memory and an even longer reach.

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is education first – helping you understand what the Northern District of Illinois actually looks like from the inside before you discover it yourself. Todd Spodek has defended clients facing pandemic fraud charges who thought about running, thought about disappearing, thought maybe they could go home and never come back. The Serbian fraud ring is what happens when you try. Three defendants stayed and got sentenced – Marko Nikolic 4 years, Milica Sumakovic 18 months, Jovan Aleksic 2+ years. Four defendants fled and are now international fugitives. The money is gone. The choice is prison or exile. And in Chicago – where the Northern District has prosecuted everyone from Rod Blagojevich to the biggest judicial corruption scandal in American history – the investigators have more resources and more determination than almost anywhere else.

Four Fugitives Still Running

Heres what makes the Serbian fraud ring so uniquely Chicago. This wasnt a scheme that fell apart when arrests started. This was a scheme that partially escaped – four of seven defendants simply left the country before anyone could stop them.

The ring submitted over 300 fraudulent PPP loan applications. They obtained more than $16 million. The applications were systematic – fake businesses, fabricated payroll, manufactured employee counts. They knew exactly what the SBA was looking for and they provided exactly that.

Maja Nikolic is overseas. Location unknown. Nebojsa Simeunovic is overseas. Location unknown. Mijajlo Stanisic is overseas. Location unknown. Dorde Todorovic is overseas. Location unknown. Four names on wanted lists. Four defendants the U.S. Marshals Service is actively hunting. Four people who stole millions from pandemic relief and then disappeared.

The three who stayed are serving time. Marko Nikolic got 4 years and 2 months plus $6.9 million in restitution. Thats money he’ll be paying for the rest of his life – the debt survives bankruptcy, survives everything except death. Milica Sumakovic got 18 months. Jovan Aleksic got 2+ years.

Heres the calculation the fugitives made. Serve years in American prison, or flee to countries that might not extradite. They chose flight. But the 10-year statute of limitations means investigators have until 2030 or 2031 to find them. Extradition treaties cover most of the world. Montenegro extradited PPP fraudsters to Los Angeles. Serbia cooperates with American law enforcement on serious crimes.

The fugitives cant come back to America. Ever. They cant visit family here. They cant do business here. They cant travel to any country with extradition treaties. Their assets in the United States are seized. Their bank accounts are frozen. Their co-conspirators are in prison.

If you submitted fraudulent PPP applications in Chicago and your thinking about leaving the country – about going home, about disappearing – understand that four defendants from one fraud ring tried exactly that. They’re still running. They’ll be running forever. And if they’re ever found, they’ll serve every day of their sentences plus whatever time gets added for fleeing.

The Jail Guards Who Became Inmates

Jareli Reyes worked as a correctional officer at Cook County Jail. John Williams worked as a correctional officer at Cook County Jail. Kiara Brown worked as a correctional officer at Cook County Jail. Their job was keeping criminals locked up – processing inmates, maintaining security, enforcing the rules that keep society safe from lawbreakers.

Then they created fake businesses and filed fraudulent PPP applications.

Let that sink in. The people whose literal job was imprisoning criminals became criminals themselves. They walked through Cook County Jail every day, watching inmates serve time for theft and fraud and conspiracy. They knew exactly what happens to people who break federal laws. And they filed fake PPP applications anyway.

Cook County Jail is the largest single-site county jail in America. It processes thousands of inmates. These three officers processed inmates during the day – and processed fraudulent loan applications on the side. The irony prosecutors emphasized was devastating. You cant claim you didnt understand the consequences of fraud when your day job is housing people convicted of fraud.

Heres what makes correctional officer fraud especially damaging at sentencing. Judges consider abuse of position of trust as an enhancement factor. When you work in law enforcement – even jail security – you have special knowledge and special access. Using that knowledge to commit crimes makes the crime worse, not better.

The applications were straightforward fraud. Fake businesses. No employees. No legitimate payroll. They took the same applications that got thousands of Americans arrested and submitted them despite knowing exactly what prosecution looks like.

Three Italian Sports Cars

Francesco Distefano of Chicago obtained $6.3 million in fraudulent PPP loans. What did he do with it? He bought a Lamborghini Huracan. A Maserati Ghibli. A Porsche 911. Three Italian sports cars – each one a monument to money he wasnt entitled to receive.

Heres what the car purchases reveal about Chicago PPP fraud investigations. The same cultural obsession with luxury cars that makes the North Shore famous for exotic car dealerships made it easy for investigators to find evidence. Lamborghini dealers keep meticulous records. Maserati financing goes through major banks. Every car has a VIN, a title, a registration, an insurance policy.

The status symbols became evidence. Every car payment. Every registration renewal. Every insurance premium. All of it documented exactly how Distefano spent money that was supposed to pay employees at businesses he fabricated.

When federal agents seized the cars, they also seized the paper trail that proved exactly when he bought them and exactly what he paid. The Lamborghini wasnt just a car – it was proof of intent. You dont buy a $200,000 sports car with money meant for employee payroll unless you know exactly what your doing.

Heres the math Distefano never did. He stole $6.3 million. He spent hundreds of thousands on cars. The government seized the cars. The government is seizing everything else. He’s facing federal prison. When he gets out, he’ll owe millions in restitution. The cars are gone. The money is gone. The prison time is real.

The luxury spending pattern in Chicago mirrors what happened in Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore – everywhere. But the concentration of exotic car dealers in Chicagoland, the wealth culture of the North Shore, the status competition of certain neighborhoods – all of it combines to make defendants broadcast there crimes through conspicuous consumption.

The Tax Preparer Who Prepared Fraud

Farooq Khan was a tax preparer. His job was helping people file accurate returns, claim legitimate deductions, stay legal with the IRS. He understood forms. He understood documentation. He understood what makes applications look legitimate.

He filed 30 fraudulent PPP applications.

He got 42 months. Thats three and a half years in federal prison for a professional who turned his expertise inside out – using his knowledge of what documents look legitimate to create documents that looked legitimate but werent.

Heres the pattern that should terrify anyone who used a “consultant” or tax preparer to file their PPP application. When Khan got caught, every application he filed became evidence. Every client he helped became a potential witness – or a potential defendant. The 30 applications he submitted created 30 separate investigations.

The professional credentials that built his career became aggravating factors at sentencing. Khan wasnt a desperate business owner who exaggerated payroll. He was a trained professional who systematically manufactured fraud for clients. The expertise made the crime worse.

His tax preparation business is destroyed. His reputation is gone. Hes banned from preparing taxes professionally. The skills that built his career became the tools that ended it.

If your PPP application was prepared by someone else – a tax professional, a consultant, an accountant – and that person is now being investigated, your application is part of their case file. Federal agents interview everyone connected to fraud rings. The person who helped you might be cooperating right now to reduce their own sentence.

$55 Million in Stolen Identities

Rahul Shah of Chicago didnt just file false applications for himself. He ran a scheme worth $55 million – one of the largest PPP fraud operations in the Midwest. And he did it with stolen identities.

Heres what identity theft plus PPP fraud looks like. You dont file applications for fake businesses you created. You file applications for real people who have no idea their information is being used. Elderly individuals. People who died years ago. Students who left the country. Anyone whose Social Security number you can access becomes a victim twice – first of identity theft, then of association with federal fraud.

The scope was massive. $55 million in fraudulent claims. Dozens of stolen identities. Each identity represented a real person who would eventually get letters from the SBA, from banks, from federal investigators asking why they applied for loans they never requested.

Shah got caught because identity theft at scale creates patterns. When federal investigators see clusters of applications with similar characteristics, similar IP addresses, similar bank routing patterns – they know something is wrong. The same techniques that made the scheme profitable made it detectable.

Heres the consequence cascade prosecutors emphasized. The $55 million in claims generated investigations. The investigations uncovered identity theft. The identity theft added charges. The additional charges added years. What might have been a PPP fraud case became an identity theft case became a conspiracy case became a decades-in-prison case.

The stolen identities werent just evidence of fraud. They were separate federal crimes – each one carrying its own penalties, its own restitution requirements, its own victim impact statements at sentencing.

Where Blagojevich Was Prosecuted

Heres something most defendants dont realize about Chicago until its too late. The Northern District of Illinois is one of the most aggressive federal districts in America for white-collar prosecution.

This is where they took down Rod Blagojevich – the governor who tried to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat. This is where they prosecuted Operation Greylord – the biggest judicial corruption case in American history, where they convicted 92 people including 17 judges. This is where federal prosecutors have built careers on taking down powerful people who thought they were untouchable.

The prosecutors in this district dont just handle PPP fraud. They hunt it. They have specialized fraud units. They coordinate with IRS Criminal Investigation, the Secret Service, the FBI, the SBA Office of Inspector General. They share data across agencies and across districts.

If you committed PPP fraud in most American cities, you might get prosecutors handling your case as overflow from their regular caseload. In Chicago, your case might go to prosecutors who specialize in exactly this type of fraud – who have seen thousands of applications, who know every excuse, who understand every evasion technique.

The Northern District has charged more than 200 PPP fraud defendants. The conviction rate exceeds 90%. The sentences have gotten harsher every year since 2021. Judges who were lenient in the early pandemic are now imposing significant prison time.

Congress extended the statute of limitations for PPP fraud to ten years. Applications from 2020 can be prosecuted until 2030. EIDL applications from 2021 can be prosecuted until 2031. The government has years left to build cases.

Your Options in the Northern District

If your reading this because you took a PPP loan in Cook County and your worried about what you put on the application, you have three basic options. None of them are perfect.

Option 1: Wait and hope. This is what most people do. You tell yourself the prosecutors are focused on bigger cases – the Serbian fugitives, the $55 million identity theft rings, the correctional officers. You hope your $150,000 application never gets opened. Maybe it works out. But if it dosent – if that subpoena arrives or that agent calls – youll have wasted years you could have spent preparing.

Option 2: Voluntary disclosure. In some cases, coming forward before your contacted can result in more favorable treatment. The DOJ has shown willingness to credit cooperation. But disclosure is risky. Your essentialy admitting wrongdoing the government might never have discovered.

Option 3: Get counsel now and prepare. Even if you dont do anything proactive, having a lawyer review your situation means youll be ready if something happens. Youll understand your exposure. Youll have thought through responses. A good federal defense attorney can look at your PPP application and tell you honestly what your facing.

At Spodek Law Group, we handle federal criminal defense matters across the country, including the Northern District of Illinois. The consultation is protected by attorney-client privilege – nothing you tell us can be used against you. That means you can be completely honest about what happened.

The Flash Tax Service case shows what happens to professional enablers. Hadi Isbaih ran Flash Tax Service in the Chicago area. He used his tax preparation business to file fraudulent applications for clients. When he got caught, every client file became evidence. Every person he helped became a link in the conspiracy chain.

The difference between prepared defendants and unprepared defendants often determines the outcome. When agents show up at your door, the first hour shapes everything that follows. People who panic say things they cant take back. People who are prepared invoke their rights and call their lawyer.

The Largest Single-Site Jail in America

Heres what most defendants dont realize about Cook County until its too late. Cook County Jail is the largest single-site county jail in America. When correctional officers at that facility – the people who work there every day, who see the reality of incarceration – decided to commit PPP fraud anyway, it reveals something profound about how people convince themselves rules dont apply to them.

The jail processes thousands of inmates annually. Many of them are there for fraud, theft, financial crimes. The officers who committed PPP fraud walked past those inmates every shift. They knew what happens to people who steal. And they filed fraudulent applications anyway.

Federal sentences are not like state sentences. There is no parole in the federal system. When Marko Nikolic got 4 years and 2 months, he’ll serve at least 3.5 years. When Khan got 42 months, he’ll serve at least 35. The time is real.

Heres what makes collateral consequences especially severe in Chicago. The financial services industry that dominates the Loop runs criminal background checks. The healthcare systems – Northwestern, Rush, University of Chicago Medicine – run background checks on everyone. City and county government employment is closed to convicted felons. A federal fraud conviction doesnt just mean prison time. It means permanent exclusion from major employers across the region.

The four fugitives from the Serbian ring can never come back. The three who stayed are serving time. The correctional officers who imprisoned others are now facing imprisonment themselves. The tax preparer who helped file returns is banned from the profession. The luxury car buyer lost the Lamborghini, the Maserati, the Porsche.

The silence you’ve been hearing isn’t protection. It’s just the part of the process where the investigation hasn’t reached you yet.

If your facing potential PPP fraud exposure in Chicago or anywhere in Cook County, the time to talk to a lawyer is now. Not after the FBI shows up. Not after you receive a target letter. While you still have options.

Call 212-300-5196 for a confidential consultation. Chicago is where Blagojevich was prosecuted. Its where Operation Greylord took down 17 judges. The Northern District hunts fraud. The question is whether they’re working on your file.

Seven Serbian and Montenegrin nationals stole $16 million. Four fled overseas and are still running. Three stayed and are serving years. Correctional officers at the largest jail in America became inmates themselves. Francesco Distefano bought three Italian sports cars and lost them all. Farooq Khan filed 30 fraudulent applications and got 42 months. Rahul Shah ran a $55 million identity theft operation. All of them learned the same lesson. The Northern District of Illinois is where prosecutors built careers on Blagojevich and Greylord. Running overseas doesnt work – four fugitives are still being hunted. Working in a jail doesnt protect you – it makes the sentence worse. The statute runs through 2031. You dont get to choose when the investigation reaches you.