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Oct. 8, 2024 ¡ª David Epstein of Owings Mills, Maryland, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, relating to the submission of fraudulent CARES Act loan applications.

Sept. 3, 2024 ¡ª An indictment was unsealed today charging Linda Sun with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bringing in aliens, and money laundering conspiracy.

March 26, 2025 ¡ª Five years after the enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) has launched 2,039 tax and money laundering cases related to COVID fraud, with attempted fraud in these cases totaling $10 billion. These cases include a broad range of criminal activity, including fraudulently obtained loans, credits and payments meant for American workers, families, and small businesses.

May 8, 2025 ¡ª U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced David Epstein, of Owings Mills, Maryland, to one year and one day in federal prison and 12 months of home incarceration. The sentence is in connection with his previous guilty plea to one count of wire fraud for submitting fraudulent CARES Act loan applications.

IR-2024-83, March 28, 2024 ¡ª Four years after the enactment of a key pandemic-era law, the Internal Revenue Service released updated numbers showing Criminal Investigation (CI) has investigated 1,644 tax and money laundering cases related to COVID fraud potentially totaling $8.9 billion, with well over half that amount coming from cases opened in the last year.

A Rhode Island mortgage broker who ran a Ponzi scheme with investors¡¯ monies causing millions of dollars in losses, who fraudulently obtained more than $160,000 in COVID-19 pandemic-related SBA loans, and who failed to pay more than $140,000 in taxes due the IRS was sentenced today to more than four years in federal prison and was ordered to pay restitution to his victims, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.

Feb. 15, 2024 ¡ª A Lexington toxicology lab, LabTox, LLC, its owner, Ronald Coburn and its compliance officer, Erica Baker, agreed to civil judgments totaling $10,458,933 in favor of the United States, holding LabTox, Coburn, and Baker liable for submitting false claims for urine drug testing services to the Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid programs.

March 24, 2023 ¡ª Alexander Barabash of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud, relating to the submission of fraudulent Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (¡°CARES¡±) Act loan applications. The CARES Act was enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 6, 2023 ¡ª Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that Francisco Ayala, of Ansonia, has pleaded in Hartford federal court to offenses related to his participation in a stolen catalytic converter trafficking ring.

April 29, 2025 ¡ª A former resident of Monmouth County was sentenced to prison for his role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) funds, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced.