A Palestinian migrant with two wives has been sentenced in Chicago to ten years in federal prison for a $14 million scheme involving kickbacks for filing fraudulent PPP loans.
Sharhabeel Shreiteh, 46, was sentenced to a 120-month stretch, the longest sentence meted out in the U.S. District Court in Chicago related to the country’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) launched by Congress during the Coronavirus pandemic, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Prosecutors found that Shreiteh, who worked as a Chicago-area tax preparer, received $740,000 in kickbacks for filing false PPP loan applications for about 1,000 clients. The fraudulent loans totaled about $14 million, prosecutors said.
The convicted migrant reportedly sent a large amount of money to the Palestinian territories to buy property as well as a Mercedes and other luxurious purchases for his wife and three children there.
But Shreiteh’s wife in the United States was apparently none too happy that he was sending so much back to Palestine and denying her and their daughter access to more of the spoils of his fraud in Chicago, the New York Post said.
During the trial, texts from Shreiteh’s wife in America, Hania Atiq Shreiteh, 52, revealed her displeasure.
“You suck!” his wife of eight years wrote to him in a text in 2021. “I bust my ass for 13 years and don’t have like she gets without working for it!”
“You gave her kids, a villa, now fancy cars?” she added. “I’m so sick and tired of being lied to by you.”
Shreiteh’s lawyer tried to get his client a lighter sentence explaining that having two wives at the same time “aligns with his religious beliefs and was approved by his wife.” It is unclear if the attorney’s plea factored into his client’s sentence.
For his part, the convicted fraudster said that he realizes that his scheme was the “most stupid fraud in history.” In court he claimed he lamented his actions, saying, “I don’t know what to say or do now. It’s so harming for everyone. I’m speechless.”
Shreiteh was indicted on 13 counts of wire fraud in September 2023 and pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in August 2025.
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