Analysis
Many of the cases highlighted involve refund schemes built on pandemic-era tax credits, such as the sick and family leave credit and the Employee Retention Credit, along with employers who withheld payroll taxes from workers and never sent them to the IRS. The figures are the agencies' own estimates of intended loss, which is the amount allegedly sought, not money paid out or recovered.
What the department announced
The department's National Fraud Enforcement Division and IRS Criminal Investigation said that between early September and October 14, the division's Tax Section and 35 U.S. attorney's offices took prosecutorial actions against 76 defendants, with an estimated intended loss of revenue of more than $490 million [1].
Prosecutors filed 23 actions with new charges against 31 defendants, with an estimated intended loss above about $350 million [1]. Around 39 other actions, including trials, guilty pleas and sentencings, involved another 45 defendants and an estimated intended loss of nearly $140 million [1].
Cases the department highlighted
The largest was an indictment in the Northern District of Texas charging four people with promoting a trust-based tax shelter that the government says sheltered more than $1.5 billion of income and caused an estimated tax loss of more than $200 million [1]. In the Northern District of Georgia, three men were charged in what prosecutors describe as a $74 million refund scheme in which more than 16,000 U.S. Treasury refund checks were cashed [1].
Several other cases involve tax preparers accused or convicted of filing false returns claiming COVID-19 sick leave credits, fuel tax credits or the Employee Retention Credit for clients or businesses that did not qualify [1]. Others involve business owners charged with or sentenced for failing to pay over employment taxes withheld from employees' wages [1].
Context
The National Fraud Enforcement Division was created in April 2026 [1]. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the results were "only the tip of the iceberg" and that the department plans to expand its investigations [1].
What remains uncertain
Indictments and informations are allegations, and the defendants in pending cases are presumed innocent. The $490 million total is the department's estimate of intended loss across new charges, pleas, trials and sentencings, not an amount paid out or recovered, and it mixes cases at very different stages.