A Chicago con man was hit with a five-and-a-half-year prison stretch for pocketing nearly $3 million in COVID relief bucks. Quamdeen Amuwo, 41, finessed his way into the government's pockets by cooking up a scheme that scammed the Small Business Administration's loan program meant to buffer businesses whacked by the pandemic.
Between April and November 2020, Amuwo pulled a fast one on the SBA, claiming he owned several businesses that, in reality, either didn't exist or were not his. He padded the loan applications with fake numbers about revenue and employees, the types of cons that the system wasn't ready for, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
The jig was up when a federal jury didn't buy Amuwo's act and convicted him on all twelve counts of wire fraud last June. In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang made sure Amuwo would pay back every dime of the $2.9 million he swindled.
The scam didn't just land him a stint behind bars, but he's also on the hook to pay back all the cash. "The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. Substantial assistance, was provided by the SBA’s Office of Inspector General," the Justice Department noted.
