Mohammed Shahbaz Khan, False Claims, Indiana 2024

HAMMOND, IN – In a shocking turn of events, Mohammed Shahbaz Khan, a 46-year-old man from Bourbonnais, Illinois, has been sentenced to 12 months’ probation and ordered to pay over $82,000 in restitution for making false claims related to mortgage assistance.

According to court documents, Khan knowingly submitted false residency statements to obtain mortgage assistance on an Indiana property while living elsewhere. He received mortgage assistance for 17 months, to which he was not entitled.

The Hardest Hit Fund, a federal mortgage assistance initiative offered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, was established to help stabilize communities in states that were hardest hit by the 2008 economic and housing market downturn. The fund was administered by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

Khan’s scheme involved lying to government agencies to defraud the Hardest Hit Fund out of federal funding intended to help unemployed homeowners stay in their homes. He was one of 462 defendants prosecuted for crimes investigated by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief (SIGTARP).

SIGTARP Special Inspector General Christy Goldsmith Romero commended the U.S. Attorney’s office for standing united with SIGTARP to protect the program from crime. ‘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,’ she said.

Khan was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon. He was 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 Agriculture.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). Assistant United States Attorneys Molly Kelley and Toi Houston prosecuted the case.

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