Profiles · Defendants
- Type
- Person
- Role
- Defendant
- Programs
- ERC
- Updated
The profile
A Norfolk, Virginia woman who filed eight quarterly payroll returns reporting 18 employees who did not exist, using the employer ID of her cleaning business, and claimed about $252,000 in Employee Retention Credits and $713,000 in sick-leave credits. The IRS sent two checks totaling $649,050. She and an accomplice pleaded guilty in 2025.
Identity and role
Kendra Michelle Eley, 36, of Norfolk, Virginia, was prosecuted in Newport News by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia after an IRS Criminal Investigation inquiry. Her co-defendant, Rejohn Isaiah Whitehead, 28, is from Portsmouth.
The scheme and pandemic-relief role
Between October 11, 2022 and May 24, 2023, according to court documents, Eley filed eight Forms 941 for Kreative Designs by Kendra, LLC, using the employer identification number of Kendra Cleans Maid Service. They covered four quarters of 2020 and four of 2021, and each reported wages and withholding for 18 employees she knew did not exist. On the 2021 forms she claimed sick and family leave credits of about $713,000 and Employee Retention Credits (ERC) of about $252,000, for refunds of more than $900,000 in all.
The IRS issued two refund checks, on December 9 and December 13, 2022, payable to "Kendra M. Eley, Kendra Cleans Maid Services," totaling $649,050. On December 23, 2022 Eley and Whitehead opened a business checking account for Kendra Cleans Maid Services LLC, telling the bank it had 16 employees earning an average of $2,000, and she deposited one check, for $389,640. She then wrote Whitehead checks for $20,000 on January 9, 2023 and $40,000 on January 21.
The larger claim was not the ERC but the sick-leave credit, nearly three times as much, claimed for 2021 on the same fictitious payroll.
Legal status / controversies
- Whitehead: pleaded guilty February 13, 2025 to engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property; sentencing was set for June 26, 2025.
- Eley: pleaded guilty March 6, 2025 to one count each of false claims and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property; sentencing was set for July 9, 2025.
- We found no sentencing release for either through September 15, 2026.
Where they are now (2025–2026)
The March 2025 release is the last public record of the case we found.