Itasca woman charged with stealing more than $389,000
An Itasca woman has been accused of stealing at least $389,000 from more than a half-dozen people and agencies, including more than $100,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Beata Zielinski, 55, of the 200 block of South Cherry Street, was indicted Feb. 24, according to a news release from the DuPage County state's attorney's office.
She faces 13 counts of financial institution fraud; seven counts of issuing or delivering a forged document; 14 counts of theft, including theft of governmental property; one count of money laundering; and one count of continuing financial crimes enterprise. All are felony charges.
The top charge, theft of governmental property, is a Class X felony, punishable by six to 30 years in prison. Zielinski is accused of illegally obtaining an SBA economic injury disaster loan related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
She is also accused of conducting a business email compromise scheme in which she would hack a private business's email account. Once she had access to the victim's email, she would then direct the business's bank to send money to one of her bank accounts, according to authorities.
In one instance, she used a woman's name and Social Security number to obtain a $150,000 loan from Kabbage, the American Express business-banking service, according to court records.
Some of the charges allege that she tried to transfer $6,300 from another woman's bank accounts and into her own.
Other victims included a handyman business in California, a development company, two insurance companies and a homebuilding company, according to court records.
The money-laundering charge alleges that she bought cashier's checks, for $10,000 apiece, using the allegedly stolen money. The checks were made out to two other people.
The alleged crimes occurred between June 2017 and July 2020.
"White-collar crimes, as alleged in this case, are oftentimes extremely difficult to detect as the accused will make every attempt to erase any paper trail that may lead to them. This case was no different," State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in the news release.
Zielinski is due to be arraigned Thursday.