{"id":37731,"date":"2025-04-16T12:23:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T17:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=37731"},"modified":"2025-04-16T12:23:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T17:23:41","slug":"former-chicago-usps-worker-over-alleged-paycheck-protection-program-loan-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2025\/04\/16\/former-chicago-usps-worker-over-alleged-paycheck-protection-program-loan-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Chicago USPS worker over alleged paycheck protection program loan fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL CHARGES FORMER U.S. POSTAL SERVICE WORKER OVER ALLEGED PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM LOAN FRAUD<\/h2>\n

April 15, 2025<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Raoul Alleges Woman Applied for Loans While\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Receiving Unemployment, Workers Compensation Benefits<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicago \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Attorney General Kwame Raoul charged a Cook County woman alleging she fraudulently received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and unemployment benefits totally approximately $44,699 while employed by the U.S. Postal Service and receiving workers\u2019 compensation benefits during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s office charged Linda Anthony, 52, of Chicago with theft of governmental property not exceeding $100,000, a Class 1 felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison; theft of governmental property not exceeding $10,000, theft by deception not exceeding $100,000, loan fraud and state benefits fraud, all Class 2 felonies punishable by up to seven years in prison; theft by deception not exceeding $10,000 and three counts of forgery, all Class 3 felonies punishable by up to five years in prison; and two counts of income tax fraud, Class 4 felonies punishable by up to three years in prison. Sentences will be served concurrently and are ultimately determined by the court. Anthony\u2019s next court date is May 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unacceptable that any government employee would abuse government funding, especially federal COVID-era assistance that served as a lifeline for many small businesses and unemployed Americans,\u201d Raoul said. \u201cI am committed to holding public workers accountable for abusing these critical programs at the expense of the public they are supposed to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney General Raoul\u2019s office alleges Anthony was employed by the Postal Service when she fraudulently applied for a PPP loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration by falsely claiming she owned a business that did not exist. According to Raoul\u2019s office, Anthony received a $10,000 EIDL advance in June 2020 and then a $20,830 PPP loan in April 2021, all while she received a total of $13,866 in unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s office is prosecuting this case based on a referral from the U.S. Postal Service – Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which was initially looking into alleged workers\u2019 compensation fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe USPS OIG, along with our law enforcement partners, remain committed to ensuring the accountability and integrity of Postal Service employees and stopping those who perpetrate fraud schemes,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Dennus Bishop, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Central Area Field Office.<\/p>\n

The charges are the most recent actions Attorney General Raoul has taken to hold individuals accountable for fraudulently collecting government assistance related to the pandemic. Raoul\u2019s office has prosecuted a number of individuals for PPP loan fraud and referred other investigations to the appropriate state\u2019s attorneys for further evaluation.<\/p>\n

The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed\u00a0innocent\u00a0until\u00a0proven\u00a0guilty in a court of law.<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorneys General Haley Bookhout and Mara Somlo are prosecuting the cases for Raoul\u2019s Public Integrity Bureau.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL CHARGES FORMER U.S. POSTAL SERVICE WORKER OVER ALLEGED PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM LOAN FRAUD April 15, 2025 Raoul Alleges Woman Applied for Loans While\u00a0Receiving Unemployment, Workers Compensation Benefits Chicago \u2013\u00a0Attorney General Kwame Raoul charged a Cook County woman alleging she fraudulently received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, an Economic Injury Disaster Loan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37732,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37731\/revisions\/37732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}