MOSCOW, Tenn. (WMC) – The owner of a Tennessee tax preparation business is facing decades in prison after $80 million in pandemic relief funds were claimed under false pretenses, according to the Department of Justice.
The DOJ said that 45-year-old Renata Walton from Mississippi operated a tax preparation business in Moscow, Tennessee.
From March 2022 to August 2023, the DOJ said that Walton conspired with a former employee to file false tax returns for clients seeking fraudulent refunds that were based on the employee retention credit (ERC) and the paid sick and family leave credit that was intended to help struggling businesses during the pandemic…