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Wayne Bessant

Defendant

ERC
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
ERC
Updated

The profile

A Hamilton Township, New Jersey man charged in November 2025 as the organizer of a ring that took over or imitated the identities of businesses whose Treasury checks, many of them Employee Retention Credit refunds, had been stolen, and deposited or tried to deposit 111 checks worth about $11.9 million at some 30 banks. Eight co-defendants have pleaded guilty; the charge against Bessant is an allegation.

Identity and role

Wayne Bessant, 44, of Hamilton, New Jersey, is the first of twelve defendants named in a criminal complaint in the District of New Jersey, Mag. No. 25-11265, sworn by a Homeland Security Investigations agent. The complaint calls him "the facilitator of the fraudulent scheme" and says he began organizing it from his home in Hamilton Township around March 2023. The FBI, HSI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated.

The case and pandemic-relief role

Employee Retention Credit (ERC) refunds were often mailed as paper Treasury checks, and a stolen check needs an account in the payee's name. The complaint lays out the ring's steps. Bessant received stolen checks. He and others then got business documents in the payees' names by three methods. The complaint calls them the "Hijack Method," changing the registered agent on a real company's official records to a defendant; the "Spoofing Method," forming new companies with the same or a similar name; and the "Alteration Method," editing a company's name, agent or address on documents. With those papers they opened accounts in the payees' names, similar names or their own business names, deposited the checks and withdrew or transferred the money.

From about March 2023 to June 2025, according to the complaint, the defendants obtained about 99 Treasury checks and 27 commercial checks from about 91 payees, totaling $12,730,162. They deposited or tried to deposit 84 of the Treasury checks and all 27 commercial checks, totaling $11,889,531, at about 30 financial institutions. "Many of the stolen Treasury checks were tax refunds issued by the Internal Revenue Service" under the ERC. One example in the complaint is a healthcare provider in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

  • Charged: by criminal complaint, with conspiracy to commit bank fraud (maximum 30 years), announced November 19, 2025.
  • Co-defendants: Britany Brown, Clarence Semmon, Joseph Graves-Carmichael, Andrew Hooper, Thomas Lee, Patricia Kearse, Shabazz Rouzard and John Gerard Ebert pleaded guilty in July and August 2026 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, with sentencings set for December 2026.
  • We found no plea or verdict for Bessant; the charge against him is an allegation.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The August 2026 release is the last public record of the case we found.

Sources

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