An Illinois tax preparer who helped run a “staggering” $14 million COVID rip-off used the cash to construct a mansion for a spouse and youngsters he had within the Palestinian territories — infuriating his different spouse in Illinois.
Sharhabeel Shreiteh, 46, obtained round $740,000 in kickbacks as he helped greater than 1,000 folks get phony Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) loans in what he admitted to 1 sidekick was seemingly the “most silly fraud in historical past.”
Shreiteh used his personal ill-gotten beneficial properties to construct a house and a luxurious Mercedes automotive for his spouse and their three children in Palestine — sending his American-based spouse of almost 18 years right into a jealous rage, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“You suck!” Hania Atiq Shreiteh, his 52-year-old spouse in America, texted him in July 2021 in regards to the cash he was sending to his household in his native Palestine.
“I bust my a– for 13 years and don’t have like she will get with out working for it!!!” she wrote, in response to messages in court docket filings.
“You gave her children, a villa, now fancy vehicles??!! … I’m so sick and uninterested in being lied to by you.”
Shreiteh and Hania had been married in 2008 and have a daughter in suburban Chicago. It was not clear when he married the opposite lady in Palestine, with whom he has three kids and talked to every single day, nor if they’re nonetheless married.
Nonetheless, Hania’s anger appeared to have subsided by the point the taxpayer pleaded responsible and was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Tuesday.
“Having a second household aligns along with his non secular beliefs and was accredited by his spouse,” a court docket memo in search of a lighter sentence claimed. “He hopes that when the scenario within the Center East stabilizes, his different household can go to him right here.”
Haniah additionally seemed to be standing by her man when she posted a loving Instagram publish final June for his or her seventeenth marriage ceremony anniversary.
“Wishing my great husband a really pleased anniversary!! 17 years collectively… we’ve had ups and downs however I wouldn’t change it for the world,” she wrote. “I hope we have now many extra blessed, wholesome, pleased years collectively. I like you dearly.”
Shreiteh buried his face in his arms and burst into tears as he was handed the hefty 10-year sentence at Chicago District Courtroom on Tuesday.
“I don’t know what to say or do now. It’s so harming for everybody. I’m speechless,” Shreiteh informed US District Choose Martha Pacold.
The choose stated Shreiteh strict punishment was warranted given the “staggering” extent of the fraud.
Shreiteh was additionally taking greater than $40,000 in unemployment advantages across the identical interval, regardless of making virtually $750,000 in kickback funds.
He “funded an costly improve to his way of life with cash from the American authorities,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Elie Zenner informed the listening to, in response to Law360.
Shreiteh submitted greater than 1,500 false Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) mortgage functions on behalf of not less than 1,025 shoppers beginning in 2020, in response to Zenner.
Underneath the rip-off, some $14 million in funds was fraudulently disbursed, most of which was later forgiven by the US authorities.
He was charged with 13 counts of wire fraud in a superseding indictment in September 2023 and pleaded responsible to a single depend of wire fraud in August 2025.
The PPP was designed to offer monetary help to small enterprise homeowners and others throughout the pandemic, however was topic to widespread abuse.
