HAMMOND - An Illinois man has been ordered to pay over $82,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to making false claims to get mortgage assistance.
United States Attorney Tina Nommay said in a Department of Justice news release that 46 year-old Mohammed Shahbaz Khan, made the false claims to get mortgage assistance from the Hardest Hit Fund, a federal mortgage assistance initiative offered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Khan was sentenced in United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon's courtroom to 12 months’ probation, in addition to the over $82,000 combined he has been ordered to pay to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority; the Indiana Department of Employment Security and 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.
Nommay said 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.
