Romeoville woman charged with $41,666 Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud

A Romeoville woman who pleaded guilty to a drug charge last year was arrested on charges accusing her of fraudulently obtaining $41,666 in Paycheck Protection Program loan funds and $4,710 in unemployment benefits.

Yunelly Bahena, 22, faces felony charges of theft, loan fraud, state benefits fraud and wire fraud following an investigation by the Romeoville Police Department. Bahena was indicted on April 6 on charges that alleged she fraudulently obtained two separate Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2021 with a total value of $41,666.

The Paycheck Protection Program was established by the federal government to help struggling businesses make payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Yunelly Bahena, 22, faces felony charges of theft, loan fraud, state benefits fraud and wire fraud following an investigation by the Romeoville Police Department. Bahena was indicted on April 6 on charges that alleged she fraudulently obtained two separate Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2021 with a total value of $41,666.

—  Romeoville police

Bahena had obtained the PPP loans for a beauty salon business, according to Romeoville Deputy Police Chief Chris Byrne. The indictment alleged that she secured those loans by falsely representing on her loan applications that she had a gross income of $110,000 as a “self-employed individual” in 2019.

Bahena was also charged by fraudulently obtaining $4,710 in unemployment benefits from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The indictment alleged Bahena was ineligible to receive that money because of the $41,666 funds she had from the PPP loan program.

Judge Ken Zelazo signed a $75,000 bond warrant for Bahena’s arrest on March 21. Bahena was arrested and booked into the Will County jail on May 31.

At the request of Bahena’s attorney, Judge Dave Carlson then lowered her bond to $10,000 on Friday. Bahena bonded out of jail the same day by posting 10% of that amount.

On July 12, 2022, Bahena pleaded guilty to felony possession of lisdexamfetamine that had a street value of $100, court records show. Lisdexamfetamine is an amphetamine drug sold under the brand name Vyvanse. The drug is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and binge eating disorder.

Carlson sentenced Bahena to two years of probation. As part of Bahena’s sentence, she won’t have a conviction on her record if she successfully completes her probation.

Bahena is among numerous defendants who have been charged with PPP loan fraud in Will County over the past two years.

PPP loan fraud occurs when a fraudster sends a falsified application to a bank, the bank sends that request for approval to the federal government and the bank sends the money to the fraudster, according to the website for the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

Last year, more than 20 people were charged with defrauding the federal program following an investigation by the Joliet Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Inspector General Office and the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

An Associated Press report of COVID-19 relief fraud on Tuesday had noted PPP loan fraud was estimated at $20 billion by the Small Business Administration’s inspector general’s office.

Much of the fraud occurred because the Small Business Administration did not “provide lenders sufficient specific guidance to effectively identify, track, address and resolve potentially fraudulent PPP loans,” according to the federal agency’s inspector general’s office.