U.S. Attorney's Office, Missouri, Eastern, "St. Louis Woman Accused of $177,000 Pandemic-Era Tax Credit Scheme" (March 17, 2025)
Summary
Press release of March 17, 2025 from the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, reporting that a 33-year-old St. Louis woman indicted February 20 on two felony counts of theft of government property turned herself in and pleaded not guilty. The indictment says that on Dec. 22, 2022 she filed two fraudulent quarterly employment tax returns on IRS Form 941 for a limited liability company, falsely claiming five employees and wages of approximately $177,321 for the first quarter of 2021 and $145,098 for the second, when the company had no employees. The claimed Employee Retention Tax Credit produced two Treasury checks totalling $177,000. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both, and the release notes that an indictment is merely an accusation.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“U.S. Attorney's Office, Missouri, Eastern, ‘St. Louis Woman Accused of $177,000 Pandemic-Era Tax Credit Scheme’ (March 17, 2025).”
Original at www.justice.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/u-s-attorney-s-office-missouri-eastern-st-louis-woman-accused-of-177-0-64e576678e/
, SHA-256 c5a2981340a536d35b639bc672d37b66a5b5b86bfda6c92ea4ed5595d85ca613.Full text
ST. LOUIS – A woman from St. Louis, Missouri has been accused of fraudulently obtaining $177,000 in pandemic-era tax refunds. Ayana J. Brown, 33, was indicted February 20 on two felony counts of theft of government property. She turned herself in Monday and pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. The indictment says that on Dec. 22, 2022, Brown filed two fraudulent quarterly employment tax returns (IRS Form 941s) with the IRS on behalf of Yaya Flowtiques LLC. Brown falsely claimed the company had five employees and paid approximately $177,321 in wages for the first quarter of 2021 and $145,098 in wages for the second quarter, the indictment says. In fact, Yaya Flowtiques had no employees during this time, the indictment says. Brown fraudulently claimed credits under the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC) program, resulting in two U.S. Treasury checks totaling $177,000 in refunds that were mailed to Brown, the indictment says. The ERC was a tax credit designed to encourage businesses to retain employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally, businesses qualified for the ERC if they were shut down by a government order, experienced a 50% decline in gross receipts or qualified as a recovery startup business and if they paid qualified wages to employees during the pandemic. Each theft of government property charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and fine Charges set forth in an indictment are merely an accusation and does not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.
File and source
- File
- doj-usao-edmo-press-release-st-louis-woman-accused-177000-pandemic-era-tax-credit-scheme-2025-03-17.json
- Size
- 2,694 bytes
- SHA-256
- c5a2981340a536d35b639bc672d37b66a5b5b86bfda6c92ea4ed5595d85ca613
- Original
- www.justice.gov