If we don’t fully meet all the listed requirements on paper, we are often encouraged to keep going, don’t give up. Passion and drive can help surpass qualifications. For a job. But maybe not for a COVID-19 relief loan where the qualifications are so clearly stated by the U.S. Small Business Association! Especially now since the Justice Department is taking action against anyone who didn’t fully qualify. On November 29, 2024, Renata Walton and Nicole Jones were charged with allegedly stealing $65 million in COVID-19 loan relief loans for their clients and themselves. None of whom qualified.
Walton owned and operated R&B Tax Express in Moscow, Tennessee. In 2020, she and her employee Jones allegedly began falsifying numbers that they provided to the IRS on personal and business tax returns in order to maximize opportunities to qualify for COVID relief tax credits. The Employee Retention Credit is a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses and organizations with employees that were affected during the pandemic. The Sick and Family Leave Credit provided tax credits to employers for wages paid to workers who needed time to recover from injury, disability, illness or conditions related to vaccinations. These two tax credits were established to help businesses during a pandemic crisis but became a tool for R& J to steal millions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayer.
On behalf of their clients, Walton and Jones allegedly would fraudulently file for these COVID-19 related tax credits for which their clients were not actually entitled. However, when the fraudulent tax returns were processed by the IRS, the clients received six-figure tax refunds. Ironically, for all their industrious work, for tax period 2022, Walton and Jones apparently failed to file tax returns themselves.
Excellent job by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Department in investigating this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Two Tennessee tax preparers charged with stealing $65 million in Covid relief” published by NBC News on November 29, 2024.
Two tax preparers have been charged with defrauding the federal government of $65 million in Covid relief funds, according to federal prosecutors in Tennessee.
Renata Walton, 44, and Nicole Jones, 36, were recently indicted on over 50 counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, preparing false tax returns and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Memphis said this week in a news release. Walton was charged separately with submitting false paycheck protection and disaster loan applications to the Small Business Administration, according to the office.