$16M Covid Relief Scammer Sentenced to 18 Months

CHICAGO – A Chicago woman has been sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison for participating in an organized scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $16 million in small business loans and grants under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.

Milica Sumakovic, 33, of Chicago, pleaded guilty last year to a federal wire fraud charge. U.S. District Judge Nancy L. Maldonado on April 25, 2024, sentenced Sumakovic to 18 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $1.68 million in restitution to the SBA.

Sumakovic was among seven defendants indicted in U.S. District Court in Chicago for participating in a scheme that submitted more than 300 fraudulent applications seeking more than $40 million in benefits from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL). The applications and supporting documents contained materially false representations about the defendants’ purported companies, including the number of employees and revenue amounts.

The defendants’ scheme caused the U.S. Small Business Administration to pay out more than $16 million in fraudulent benefits. Sumakovic personally submitted and assisted co-defendant Marko Nikolic in submitting eighteen of the fraudulent applications that sought more than $2.6 million in benefits.

Marko Nikolic, 36, of La Grange, Ill., and Branko Aleksic, 34, of Chicago, each pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and money laundering charges. Marko Nikolic was sentenced in January 2024 to four years and two months in prison and ordered to pay $6.9 million in restitution, while Aleksic was sentenced in November 2023 to two years and eleven months in prison and ordered to pay $575,000 in restitution.

The four other defendants – Maja Nikolic, 36, of Brookfield, Ill., Nebojsa Simeunovic, 38, of Lyons, Ill., Mijajlo Stanisic, 34, of Willowbrook, Ill., and Dorde Todorovic, 33, of Chicago – are considered fugitives and may currently be residing overseas. Warrants for their arrests have been issued.

The sentences were announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago, Heather M. Hill, Acting Inspector General of the Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office, and Hannibal Ware, Inspector General of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“The relief programs provided by the CARES Act were designed to assist small businesses struggling to survive the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Pasqual. “Our office is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to root out abuse of these important programs and hold accountable anyone who seeks to fraudulently profit from them.”

$16M Covid Relief Scammer Sentenced to 18 Months