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.
In one CPD case, the investigators determined that an officer lied to fraudulently obtain two PPP loans totaling $41,666 before joining the department, then submitted false filings to secure loan forgiveness. The officer lied about the matter again during the CPD application process, failed to appear for a scheduled interview with OIG investigators, and ultimately resigned while under inquiry. CPD agreed with OIG’s recommendation to add the officer to the city’s do-not-hire list, the quarterly report stated…