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Ashley Clark Ingram

Defendant

ERC
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
ERC
Updated

The profile

The finance and operations director of Habitat for Humanity of Central South Carolina, who applied for the charity's Employee Retention Credit without its knowledge, moved $388,550.75 in Treasury checks into her own accounts, and in all took about $514,672 from the charity and the government. She was sentenced in February 2025 to two years.

Identity and role

Ashley Clark Ingram, 34 at her plea and 35 at sentencing, of Columbia, South Carolina, was director of finance and operations at Habitat for Humanity of Central South Carolina, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina. The FBI's Columbia field office investigated.

The case and pandemic-relief role

Tax-exempt employers could claim the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) on their payroll returns. According to the office, while she ran the nonprofit's finances Ingram applied to the IRS for the credit on the charity's behalf, "but without the knowledge of the nonprofit." The Treasury sent checks totaling $388,550.75. She deposited them in a Habitat account she controlled and moved the money to her own accounts. In all she misappropriated about $514,672.37 from Habitat for Humanity and the United States government, the office said.

The releases do not say whether the charity qualified for the credit it did not know it had claimed.

  • Pleaded guilty: to one count of theft of government funds, announced June 25, 2024.
  • Sentenced: by U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis to 24 months in prison and two years of supervision, a $10,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. She was ordered to pay the remaining $30,165.47 in restitution to Habitat, which she paid the day of sentencing, the office said on February 11, 2025.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The February 2025 sentence is the last public record of Ingram we found. Her case and Brian T. Owen's are the two in the Justice Department's ERC releases through September 15, 2026 in which an insider diverted a real employer's refund. The releases do not explain why only $30,165.47 of restitution remained at sentencing.

Sources

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