6 South Suburban Men Sentenced In $2.8M Retail Financing Fraud

TINLEY PARK, IL — Six south suburban men have been sentenced as co-conspirators to a total of 31 combined years in prison for their roles in defrauding several retail financing providers through schemes involving the use of the names and other personal identifying information of over 1,000 identity theft victims, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Wael Jibawi, 28, of Palos Heights, Illinois; Mohammad Jibawi, 27, of Tinley Park, Illinois; Mahmoud Aljibawi, 40, of Oak Forest, Illinois; Alaelddin Aljibawi, 37, of Orland Park, Illinois; Jamel Eljebawe, 48, of Tinley Park, Illinois; and Yanal Khrisat, 28, of Burbank, Illinois, worked together to defraud at least six retail financing providers of $2.8 million from April 2017 through January 2022, the release from the Department of Justice reads. The group opened several retail furniture stores in and around the Chicago area, then using the stores to "establish merchant relationships with the targeted financing providers.

"These relationships enabled defendants to submit financing applications in the names of customers," the release reads. "Instead, the defendants submitted applications in the names of identity theft victims, then used the approved accounts to charge the financing providers for purchases that did not actually occur."

In February 2018, several of the defendants also used social engineering to gain access to merchant accounts belonging to other businesses, then re-routing payments owed those businesses by one retail finance provider.

They then submitted the affected businesses’ customer accounts for funding, "causing the financing provider to deposit money that the defendants were not actually owed into accounts that they had opened and controlled."

The men defrauded companies Okinus, Greenwave Finance, Synchrony Bank and Wells Fargo.

Wael and Mohammad Jibawi, Aljibawi, and Khrisat were all convicted of conspiracy to convict wire and bank fraud, accessing protected computer in furtherance of fraud, and wire fraud. Wael Jibawi was sentenced to 132 months; Mohammad Jibawi was sentenced to 87 months. Aljibawi was given 58 months, and Khrisat was sentenced to 21 months. Alaelddin Aljibawi and Eljebawe were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and wire fraud. The former was sentenced to 48 months, and Eljebawe sentenced to 31 months.