Evanston businessman faces federal COVID-19 fraud charges
EVANSTON, Ill. - An Evanston business owner is facing charges after allegedly fraudulently applying for more than $400,000 in aid from the CARES Act Payroll Protection Program.
Rahul Shah, 51, was charged with bank fraud and making false statement to a financial institution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement.
The Paycheck Protection Program was created to provide forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Shah, owner of several information technology companies including Katalyst Technologies, Inc. and N2N Holdings, submitted a PPP loan application for $441,138 to a bank on April 30, according to a criminal complaint. Shah’s wife is listed as manager of N2N Holdings, which does business under the name Boardshare.
The application significantly overstated the payroll expenses of the company and included false IRS documents, the criminal complaint states.
In addition, Shah allegedly signed and submitted IRS forms with the application that indicated N2N made payments to several individuals, prosecutors said. According to the forms, N2N paid a Vernon Hills woman $68,715, but the woman later told investigators she never worked for the company and didn’t receive the payment.
The bank considering the PPP loan ultimately did not approve the application, according to the complaint.
Shah initially told federal agents he had received the IRS forms from employees in India, the complaint states. When asked to produce the email, Shah allegedly said “I don’t have an email.”
Agents asked him if he prepared and filed the suspicious forms thinking “It will keep our business alive,” the complaint states.
“I would say so, yes,” Shah allegedly replied.