IRS Employees Charged With Stealing COVID-19 Funds, Money Spent in Las Vegas

Five electric current or former Internal Revenue Robert William Service (IRS) employees are veneer or get already pleaded shamed to conducting wire humbug and other charges for their alleged involvement inwards a scheme that swindled money from federal COVID-19 succor programs.

The Department of Justice proclaimed the various charges yesterday against the Little Phoebe individuals who worked or persist in to work in the IRS’ offices in Tennessee River and Mississippi. Fed prosecutors aver that the defendants lawlessly obtained monetary resource under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program during the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the PPP and EIDL were federal stimulus programs authorized as component of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The DOJ alleges that the Phoebe individuals submitted fraudulent loan applications that collectively sought-after(a) more than $1 million.

The ill-gotten gains were then spent on an array of extravagances, including unsparing cassino trips to Las Vegas, sumptuousness vehicles, and high-end fashion.

Insider Fraud

US Attorney Kevin Cesar Ritz of the DOJ’s Western District of Tennessee River explained that the federal authorities is committed to rooting come out big actors within the agency responsible for(p) for collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code.

These individuals — performing out of virtuous greed — maltreated their positions past taking governing pecuniary resource meant for citizens and businesses who desperately needful it,” Cesar Ritz said. “Our power will non pause to pursue and bursting charge individuals who slip from our nation’s taxpayers.”

Two of the fivesome accused used some of their COVID monetary resource to pay for gambling trips to Las Vegas.

Fatina Hewitt, 35, of Olive Branch, Mississippi, faced a bingle numeration of wire fraud. The DOJ said Hewitt, who was formerly employed by the IRS as an IT management computer program assistant, applied for $338,900 inward EIDL loans and obtained $28,900 in wrongful benefits.

The DOJ said Hewitt used the money to purchase Gucci wear and accessories and a trip up to Las Vegas. She pleaded hangdog on October 4 to the conducting wire humbug charge.

The DOJ said Tina Humes, 56, of Memphis, also faced a conducting wire humbug level for applying for $123,612 inwards COVID relief money. Humes was issued $123,612 in funds, money that she allegedly spent on jewellery and multiple trips to Las Vegas. On July 27, she pleaded guilty to the wire humbug charge.

The DOJ did not item where Hewitt or Humes stayed patch inward Las Vegas, nor whether the 2 gambled with any of the bemire money.

Three of the cinque hold at present pleaded hangdog to wire fraud, a heraldic bearing that carries a maximum condemn of upwards to 20 years inward prison.

CARES Act Fraud Investigations

The DOJ says it continues to investigation CARES Act dupery past federal employees after Attorney General Merrick Judy Garland in May of 2021 established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

The Task Force, Garland says, “bolsters efforts to inquire and prosecute the to the highest degree culpable domestic and international felon actors” involved inward illegal pandemic relief.

To date, the DOJ has recovered over $75 billion inwards fraudulently obtained PPP funds. The feds hold also seized real acres and opulence items purchased with such proceeds.

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