Enough Is Never Enough | Illinois | Covid-19 Fraud

Fraudsters often operate with a remarkable lack of boundaries, both in terms of the scope of their actions and the individuals they target. One would think that obtaining $ 55 million under false pretenses and misleading the banks would be enough. But not for Rahul Shah, who pushed boundaries regardless of how it impacted the U.S. taxpayer.

Shah owned and operated several information technology companies in the Chicago area. He had submitted loan applications to federally insured financial institutions with falsified bank statements that included inflated deposits, falsified balance sheets that overstated revenues, and fabricated audited financial statements with forged signatures. Through this scheme he had received almost $55 million in commercial loans and lines of credit that he eventually defaulted on. Essentially pocketing the money! But enough is never enough in fraud.

In 2020, Shah submitted to a federally insured bank an application for a $441,138 loan guaranteed by the Small Business Association, with statements that significantly overstated the payroll expenses of a company he controlled. In support of the loan application, he again submitted COVID-19 relief loan applications to financial institution that included falsified supporting documents, including fraudulent IRS documents, which falsely represented that the company made payments to multiple individuals who had not received such payments. He also used stolen identities to carry out the fraud, using the names and taxpayer identification numbers of individuals that he knew had not received payments from the company in the PPP loan applications. 

On July 2, 2025, Shah was convicted 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.

Great job by the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General in this case.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Evanston Businessman Convicted For Bank And COVID Relief Fraud Schemes: Authorities” published by The Patch on July 2, 2025.

A suburban businessman was convicted Tuesday for his role in schemes to fraudulently obtain over $55 million in commercial loans and lines of credit and for submitting fraudulent applications for coronavirus relief money, authorities said.

Rahul Shah, 56, of Evanston, was found guilty 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, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.