Rahshone Burnett, 47, of Westchester, was charged last month with stealing money from the federal pandemic unemployment program. In June, he was sentenced to prison for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program. In 2013, he went to prison for ripping off his late sister’s kids.
Rahshone Burnett said he was ashamed.
The year was 2013 and he was standing before a federal judge in Chicago to learn his fate for stealing more than $1 million from the children of his sister — who had died in a fire.
Burnett told the judge he wrongly “felt entitled to stuff” when he looted a fund set up to help raise his sister’s five children.
His sister and her youngest child died in a fire at her Chicago Housing Authority home in 2001. The surviving kids continued to live in relative poverty on the West Side while Burnett blew money from their $5.5 million CHA court settlement on a Bentley with the license plate “FLYHI,” diamond jewelry and a home for him and his girlfriend in Westchester.
Prosecutors said Burnett stole more than $1 million, but he said he was responsible for less than that — between $400,000 and $1 million.
The judge sentenced Burnett, who had been the legal guardian of the children’s estates, to a combined nine years in prison for fraud and heroin dealing. Later, health concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the court to let Burnett finish his sentence at home under the supervision of the Salvation Army beginning in May 2020.
But Burnett still felt entitled to more stuff, prosecutors said. This time, he set his sights on federal benefits intended to help people struggling with their finances during the pandemic.
In August 2020, Burnett fraudulently received $20,832 from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which was set up to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic that year.
On his PPP application, Burnett claimed he had owned a construction company in 2019 — when he was actually sitting in prison, unemployed, that year. --->READ MORE HEREKansas City woman sentenced for COVID-19 fraud, identity theft:
A Kansas City woman will be spending over a decade behind bars after committing COVID-19 fraud and identity theft.
Briauna Adams, 29, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for her role in two cases that resulted in more than $500,000 in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans being issued under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and more than $3,000,000 in stolen Treasury checks.
She plead guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and theft of government funds relating to a counterfeit check scheme and stolen U.S. Treasury checks, according to the Department of Justice.
According to court documents, Adams rented a townhome in Raymore, Missouri, under the name of another person. On July 27, 2024, she opened an investment account from the Raymore home. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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