Destiney Baker

A Glendale Heights woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for scamming seniors and obtaining fraudulent government loans.

Destiney Baker, 37, stole nearly $300,000 through schemes involving identity theft of more than two dozen victims and multiple fraudulent Small Business Administration Payment Protection Loans.

Baker appeared Monday, Oct. 2 in DuPage County Circuit Court, where she entered a guilty plea to one count each of theft by deception, financial exploitation of the elderly and aggravated identity theft — elderly victim.

Judge Daniel Guerin handed down the sentence after accepting Baker’s guilty pleas. Baker has begun serving her sentence.

Baker, a certified nursing assistant, met her victims through a staffing agency that employed her. From 2016 through February 2019, Baker stole banking information from her victims and used it to gain access to victims’ accounts, as well as opening new accounts. With her victims’ bank account information, Baker then stole hundreds of thousands of dollars and used the illegally gotten funds for, among other things, airline tickets to Hawaii for herself and three children, tuition for her children at a private school and veterinary services for her dog.

In July 2022, Baker was accused of illegally obtaining more than $80,000 in loans from the SBA Payment Protection Program. Through the course of the investigation, law-enforcement officials learned that Baker had illegally applied for five government-sponsored PPP loans. For three of the loans, Baker used her name with a false Social Security number and for the other two loans, Baker used other people’s names, including the name of a deceased individual who was a victim in the identity theft case against her.

Baker has remained in DuPage County Jail since July 2022.

Her thefts totaled $294,706; and the court ordered her to pay that amount in restitution.

“Ms. Baker’s greed knew no bounds and her heartless theft from her elderly victims as well as the federal government fed that greed,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said. “The systemic theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from elderly individuals who relied on her and trusted her, and the theft of more than $80,000 intended to help businesses stay afloat during the pandemic is despicable.

“She caused immeasurable hardship for her victims and for that, she will now spend a significant amount of time behind bars. I thank the Glendale Heights, Naperville and Aurora police departments for their assistance on this case. The case against Ms. Baker was extremely complicated … .”