A Joliet man has been charged with fraudulently obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program loan worth $20,625 and receiving more than $16,000 in unemployment benefits by misrepresenting how he lost his job.

Anthony Love, 44, joins at least nine other defendants who’ve been charged in Will County with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal program created to help struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since June 15, authorities have arrested 10 people thus far in the ongoing investigation of Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud but prosecutors dropped charges against one of them, Donta Bailey, 19, of Joliet.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill on Aug. 5 that establishes a 10-year statute of limitations for criminal charges and civil enforcement against borrowers who engages in Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud, according to a report from Thomson Reuters.

On May 26, the inspector general’s office for the Small Business Administration, issued a report that identified more than 70,000 loans totaling more than $4.6 billion in potentially fraudulent PPP loans, according to Thomson Reuters.

In Will County, prosecutors charged Love with obtaining a $20,625 loan from the Paycheck Protection Program by falsely claiming his sole proprietor business had gross revenues of $99,000 in 2020.

Love was accused by prosecutors of falsely claiming in his application for a Paycheck Protection Program loan that he was not facing any criminal charges.

On March 10, 2021, Love was charged in Will County with being a armed habitual criminal, and possession of a weapon by felon. The case remains pending in court.

Prosecutors alleged Love received $16,633 in an unemployment benefits last year and he was ineligible to receive those funds because he “lost his employment due to lack of attendance, instead of being laid off due to lack of work,” according to a criminal complaint.

Prosecutors alleged Love claimed on an unemployment benefits application he had been laid off due to lack of work.