Seven Charged in $600 Million Fraudulent Covid Tax Credit Scheme

The Department of Justice has charged seven with filing more than 8,000 tax returns to falsely claim almost $600 million in Covid-19 tax credits.

The scheme is the largest such fraud against the Covid-19 pandemic-era relief programs uncovered to date, according to the DOJ. The seven defendants—Keith Williams, Jamari Lewis, Morais Dicks, Janine Davis, Tiffany Williams, James Hames Jr., and Ewendra Mathurin—worked as tax preparers for Credit Reset, ostensibly a credit repair business owned by Williams. The indictments, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, were unsealed Wednesday.

The defendants claimed Employee Retention Credits and ...