Will County woman charged with $41,665 Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud

A Will County woman has been charged with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program out of $41,665 while working for the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Shepale Hicks, 44, of Monee has been charged with loan fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, forgery, filing fraudulent income tax returns and other charges, according to a statement on Thursday from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s Office.

Hicks was employed by the Illinois Department of Revenue when she allegedly applied for more than $41,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans by claiming she owned two businesses that did not exist, according to Raoul’s office.

Hicks worked as a revenue auditor and she was paid $110,400 in 2022, according to data from the Illinois State Comptroller’s Office. Between Jan. 1, 2023, and June 28, 2023, Hicks was paid $52,300.

Hicks is no longer employed at the Illinois Department of Revenue, according to Maura Kownacki, IDOR spokesperson.

The Paycheck Protection Program was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to help struggling businesses make payroll.

In a statement, Raoul said it was “outrageous,” especially a state employee at an “agency tasked with holding taxpayers accountable for following revenue laws, would take advantage of COVID-era assistance programs.

“These programs were intended to help small businesses and unemployed Americans survive the pandemic. I will continue to ensure those who took advantage of the pandemic for financial gain are held accountable.”

Hicks’ LinkedIn profile listed her experience as a revenue auditor for the Illinois Department of Revenue between January 2008 and July 2023. Her profile said she’s “skilled at analyzing business structures, procedures and information.”

PPP loan fraud occurs when a fraudster sends a falsified application to a bank, the bank sends that request for approval to the federal government and the bank sends the money to the fraudster, according to the website for the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

An Associated Press report of COVID-19 relief fraud in 2023 had noted PPP loan fraud was estimated at $20 billion by the Small Business Administration’s inspector general’s office.

Much of the fraud occurred because the Small Business Administration did not “provide lenders sufficient specific guidance to effectively identify, track, address and resolve potentially fraudulent PPP loans,” according to the federal agency’s inspector general’s office.

In 2022, more than 20 people in Will County were charged with defrauding the federal program following an investigation by the Joliet Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Inspector General Office and the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.