CHICAGO (AP) — An Evanston businessman has been hit with federal fraud charges alleging he lied on an application for nearly half a million dollars in financial relief related to the COVID-19 crisis.

Rahul Shah of Evanston is accused of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. The charges revealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court documents revolve around an application made by Shah’s N2N Holdings to the Paycheck Protection Program. PPP was created to provide forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses.

Federal prosecutors allege N2N Holdings submitted paperwork seeking a loan that claimed employees who once worked for another Shah company were current employees of N2N.