PPP Fraud Scandal Continues

CWB has the first story we saw:

• Chicago’s inspector general concluded nine investigations in the first quarter, finding that Chicago police officers fraudulently obtained forgivable loans under the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program, investigators announced.

  A tenth city worker, identified as an aldermanic employee, also obtained a fraudulent PPP loan and then filed a false police report claiming someone had stolen their identity and used it to submit the loan application, according to the OIG’s first-quarter report. The report does not identify the targets of OIG’s investigations by name.

Nine cops, one aldercreature employee. Not a single name released though, and no word on the numerous exempt members who have been allowed to run out the clock and retire with their credentials. Or the numerous OEMC people who were racking up a few hundred thousands in fraud.

The Sun Times reports seems to go even further:

• Chicago’s top watchdog is heading for the exit — but not before dropping one last fraud bombshell on the Chicago Police Department. Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said Wednesday her office sustained allegations against 17 Chicago cops in the first four months of the year for allegedly scamming COVID-era relief funds and the police department agreed to move to fire them.

  Investigators dug into their Paycheck Protection Program loan applications — cash meant to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Another cop quit while under investigation. All told, the alleged ripoffs involving those nine cops totaled $284,000, according to Witzburg’s first quarter 2026 report.

  Fraud allegations also were sustained against eight other officers, but the Chicago Police Department hasn’t decide whether to move to fire them.

Why are so many police officers being targeted?

• “This was a triage effort, and we are not done yet,” Witzburg said. “The reason we prioritized CPD cases is because they occupy positions of tremendous public trust and they land on the witness stand, so their credibility is of paramount importance.”

The political structure has spent the last ten years or more undermining trust in the Department, burying it so deep it will take twenty years or more to resurface.

And with over 1,000 identified fraud cases in the works, seventeen is less than two percent of the total. There is far more fraud in other city departments....but those departments are far more politically protected than the CPD. Easier to pick on the cops and let the connected fade into retirement.