MEMPHIS, Tennessee. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee said Thursday that a federal grand jury returned a 53-count indictment accusing Renata Walton, 44, and Nicole Jones, 36, of Olive Branch, Mississippi, of planning several schemes to defraud the government of COVID-19 relief funds.
Falsifying personal and business tax returns from 2020 to 2024 in order to claim COVID-19-related tax credits, such as the Employee Retention Credit and the Sick and Family Leave Credit, on behalf of their clients is the charge against Walton, owner of R&B Tax Express in Moscow, Tennessee, and Jones, her coworker. According to the accusation, the two ladies received substantial payments from clients who were not eligible for the credits and obtained six-figure reimbursements for them, which they then laundered through local banks.
Walton is also charged with submitting false applications to the Small Business Administration for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). According to investigators, Walton and Jones submitted false claims totaling more than $65 million.
The indictment accuses both women of two counts of non-filing taxes, seven counts of preparing fraudulent tax returns, twelve counts of money laundering, thirty counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Another charge against Walton is obstruction of justice.
The women could spend up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of each count of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 10 years in jail for each money laundering crime, 3 years in prison for each false tax return preparation count, and 1 year in prison for each tax failure count. For obstructing justice, Walton can be sentenced to another 20 years in prison.
Bonds of $100,000 were used to release both women. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Carey Bateman III is prosecuting the case, while the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division is conducting the investigation.
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