An East Chicago woman has been indicted alleging she committed wire fraud after getting a $10,000 COVID loan for an Illinois salon that didn’t exist, federal prosecutors said.

       She also allegedly applied for unemployment in Arizona where she never lived, they said.

       The two counts against Natasha Weeks, 29, were filed Aug. 18 and unsealed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, according to filings.

       Weeks submitted an electronic application using an IP address from East Chicago for a U.S. Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan for a Weeks Hair Braiding/Weeks Hair Shop in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

       She falsely claimed the business operated since 2017 and she bought it in May 2020 with 20 employees and $150,000 in sales, records show. Weeks did some braiding out of her East Chicago apartment, but nothing to this scale, prosecutors said.

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       She received $10,000 on July 7.

       Additionally, Weeks applied for unemployment in Arizona using a falsified home address — 1200 E. University Blvd. — aroused suspicion because it was an administrative building at the University of Arizona.

       She claimed her last day of work was April 5, 2020, because the business shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

       The FBI, and U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations worked on the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Berkowitz is prosecuting.

       Anyone with information on COVID federal aid fraud is asked to call the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721 or file a complaint online.

       East Chicago woman indicted for wire fraud in COVID aid scheme, feds say

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