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May 21, 2025 ¡ª Acting United States Attorney April M. Leon announced that U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson sentenced Leslie Henry Wilson, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to 12 months in federal prison following her conviction for failure to pay federal taxes. The Court further sentenced Wilson to serve three years of supervised release following her term of imprisonment and ordered her to pay $598,774.51 in restitution.

On Nov. 20, 2018, the IRS clarified that individuals taking advantage of the increased gift tax exclusion amount in effect from 2018 to 2025 will not be adversely impacted after 2025 when the exclusion amount is scheduled to drop to pre-2018 levels. The IRS formally made this clarification in proposed regulations released that day. The regulations implement changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), tax reform legislation enacted in December 2017.

September 21, 2023 ¡ª Isaac Lamont Dawson was sentenced to 36 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Act (¡°PPP¡±) COVID-19 loans on behalf of two separate businesses he owned. He is the seventh defendant to be sentenced for his role in the scheme, and he has received the longest sentence so far. To date, 16 defendants have pled guilty to this scheme in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Sentencing is pending for the remaining nine.

April 14, 2025 ¡ª Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl announced that Barrett Clair Prody of Fort Lauderdale, FL, appeared in United States District Court today and was sentenced by Chief Judge Peter Welte to serve 190 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release for the offenses of Continuing Criminal Enterprise, Money Laundering Conspiracy, and Obstruction of Justice. Prody was also ordered to pay a $300 special assessment fee.

April 11, 2025 ¡ª Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl announced that Barrett Clair Prody of Fort Lauderdale, FL, appeared in United States District Court today and was sentenced by Chief Judge Peter Welte to serve 190 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release for the offenses of Continuing Criminal Enterprise, Money Laundering Conspiracy, and Obstruction of Justice. Prody was also ordered to pay a $300 special assessment fee.

April 24, 2025 ¡ª Former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy chief financial officer William A. Smith was sentenced to 19 years in prison today for embezzling over $40 million from his employer over an eleven-year period, announced Acting United States Attorney Julie Beck. Smith was also sentenced to a three-year term of supervised release, ordered to pay approximately $44.3 million in restitution, and ordered to forfeit ill-gotten gains that were traceable to his scheme.

March 11, 2024 ¡ª Alabama State Representative John Rogers has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with the scheme to defraud the Jefferson County Community Service Fund, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI) Acting Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples.

July 13, 2022 ¡ª A Rome, New York couple and their adult son were sentenced today in federal court in Utica for tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department¡¯s Tax Division, and Thomas Fattorusso, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, New York Field Office.

April 28, 2023 ¡ª Denise Coit Alston, Monica Faye Barnes, Terron Cortez Parker, and Kami D. Woodard each pleaded guilty earlier this week to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Act (¡°PPP¡±) COVID-19 loans. The defendants requested relief for various companies they owned including companies listed as being engaged in catering, trucking and real estate. They all face up to 20 years in prison.

January 10, 2023 ¡ª Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, and, Jean Pierre Njock, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation today announced that John Matava, of Coventry, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with offenses related to his receipt of COVID-19 relief funds.