HAMMOND-Mohammed Shahbaz Khan, age 46, of Bourbonnais, Illinois, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon after pleading guilty to making false claims related to mortgage assistance from the Hardest Hit Fund, a federal mortgage assistance initiative offered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, announced Acting United States Attorney Tina L. Nommay.
Khan was sentenced to 12 months’ probation and ordered to pay $29,926.46 in restitution to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority; $25,753 to the Indiana Department of Employment Security and $26,880.18 to the United States Department of Education.
According to documents in this case, the purpose of the Hardest Hit Fund was to help stabilize communities in States that were “hardest hit” by the 2008 economic and housing market downturn. In Indiana, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority administers the fund. Only Indiana homeowners with one home in which they lived could receive Hardest Hit funds.
Khan knowingly submitted false residency statements to obtain mortgage assistance on an Indiana property while living elsewhere. Khan received mortgage assistance for 17 months, to which he was not entitled.
“Today the defendant was sentenced after conviction as one of 462 defendants prosecuted for crimes that the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief (SIGTARP) investigated,” said Special Inspector General Christy Goldsmith Romero. “Mohammad Khan repeatedly lied to government agencies to defraud the Hardest Hit Fund out of federal funding intended to help unemployed homeowners stay in their home. We commend the U.S. Attorney’s office for standing united with SIGTARP to protect this program from crime.”
This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Molly Kelley and Toi Houston.
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