Joliet woman ordered to pay back $20,000 in pandemic relief fraud

A Joliet woman has been ordered to pay back $20,000 after she pleaded guilty to defrauding a federal COVID-19 pandemic relief program in 2021.

Alicia Pernell, 36, avoided prison time in the case involving stolen federal Paycheck Protection Program money. But she was in the Will County jail for about six hours Wednesday before her release.

Will County Judge Jessica Colón-Sayre imposed a 180-day jail sentence on Pernell but suspended that sentence in lieu of Pernell’s completion of second-chance probation.

Pernell is required to serve two years of probation and pay back $20,000 to the U.S. Small Business Administration, a federal agency that oversaw the Paycheck Protection Program.

The program was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to help struggling businesses make payroll.

But Pernell was employed by the Illinois Department of Corrections when she fraudulently applied for and received a $20,000 loan for a business called “Alicia Pernell,” according to a statement from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Raoul’s office prosecuted Pernell.

The Alicia Pernell business was part of the “support activities for animal production” industry, and it had a single employee, according to a ProPublica database on Paycheck Protection Program loans.

“I am pleased with the outcome of this case that holds an individual accountable for taking advantage of assistance programs while they were responsible for serving the people of Illinois. I will continue to prosecute government workers who exploited pandemic assistance programs that were critical to the survival of countless small businesses,” Raoul said.

As part of a deal, Pernell pleaded guilty to theft by deception and prosecutors dropped other felony charges of loan fraud, forgery and income tax fraud.

According to Colón-Sayre’s restitution order, Pernell must pay $5,000 on the date of the restitution order and then $625 per month until the $20,000 balance is paid in full.