Palos Heights man charged with submitting fraudulent COVID relief fund applications: feds

A suburban man has been charged with helping customers fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief loans.

Hadi Isbaih, of Palos Heights, faces four counts of wire fraud, according to an indictment announced Tuesday by the U.S attorney’s office.

Isbaih owned and operated Flash Tax Service Inc., a tax and investment consulting business based in suburban Bridgeview, the indictment said.

Between April and October 2020, Isbaih allegedly submitted hundreds of Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications on behalf of customers that contained false statements about their businesses — including information about income, revenue, and expenses, according to the indictment.

Millions of dollars of fraudulently obtained PPP and EIDL funds were allegedly disbursed to Isbaih’s customers, the indictment said.

Isbaih allegedly charged Flash Tax customers an upfront fee of several hundred dollars to submit the fraudulent applications and an additional fee of about $1,000 if they received funds through those applications, the indictment said.

Isbaih was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.