A Will County woman became the latest public employee to be charged in a sweeping investigation targeting Paycheck Protection Program fraud that has rocked several state agencies.
The Illinois attorney general’s office announced the multiple felony charges against Shepale Hicks, of Monee, on Thursday, the same day she pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including money laundering, defrauding a financial institution, wire fraud and forgery.
Hicks was originally charged last month in Cook County Circuit Court, according to court records.
Authorities said Hicks, then a revenue auditor for the state Department of Revenue, applied for two pandemic-era PPP loans intended to support struggling businesses, claiming she owned two businesses. She received payments in August 2020 and May 2021, totaling $41,665.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Hicks’ company did not exist.
“It is outrageous that anyone, especially a government employee at an agency charged with holding taxpayers accountable for complying with tax laws, would take advantage of the COVID-19 assistance program,” Raoul said in a press release.
An IDOR spokesperson confirmed that Hicks no longer worked for the office.
Earlier this year, the Office of Executive Inspector General released reports detailing rampant PPP fraud by public servantswith 275 separate cases of PPP failure. The alleged thefts totaled more than $7 million in public funds, according to the IG’s April newsletter.
In one example, a Department of Human Services employee admitted to state investigators that she “did what everyone else was doing at the time to get money,” according to the IG reports. “She said she did not use the loan proceeds for any kind of business expenses because she has no business expenses.”
While hundreds of employees have lost their jobs, Raoul’s office has charged 16 Chicago-area residents who worked for agencies such as the state Department of Human Services, the Department of Children and Family Services and the Cook County sheriff’s office.
Hicks is scheduled to return to court on September 27.
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