Itasca Woman Used Scheme To Obtain Nearly $375K: State's Attorney

WHEATON, IL — A 55-year-old Itasca woman faces felony charges after prosecutors said that she attempted to defraud at least nine different financial institutions as well as the Small Business Administration as part of a scheme that illegally netted her nearly $375,000.

Beata Zielinski was indicted on Monday on 36 criminal counts on Monday and a DuPage County judge set bond at $100,000, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced on Monday.

Zielinski has been charged with three counts of theft of government property, eight counts of theft in excess of $100,000, one count of financial institution fraud, one Count of continuing a financial crimes enterprise, three counts of theft in Excess of $10,000, four counts of financial institution fraud in excess of $10,000, one count of money laundering in excess of $10,000, eight counts of financial institution fraud in excess of $50 and seven counts of forgery, Berlin said.

Prosecutors say that between June 2017 and July 2020, Zielinski engaged in multiple identity theft schemes to illegally obtain funds from not only several private banks but also from the United States government through a Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Berlin said in a news release.

Prosecutors also said Zielinski conducted a business email compromise scheme in which she hacked a private business’ email account. Once she reportedly had access to the victim’s email, Zielinski then directed the business’ bank to send money to another bank account that she controlled.

Prosecutors said that through these schemes, Zielinski illegally obtained more than $373,000. Zielinski is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

“White collar crimes, as alleged in this case, are often times extremely difficult to detect as the accused will make every attempt to erase any paper trail that may lead to them,” Berlin said. “This case was no different.”