A St. Louis, Missouri, woman has been charged with fraudulently obtaining $177,000 in pandemic-era tax refunds.
Ayana J. Brown, 33, was indicted on February 20 on two felony counts of theft of government property. She surrendered to authorities on Monday and entered a not-guilty plea in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
According to the indictment, Brown submitted two fraudulent quarterly employment tax returns (IRS Form 941) on December 22, 2022, on behalf of Yaya Flowtiques LLC. The filings falsely stated that the company had five employees and reported $177,321 in wages for the first quarter of 2021 and $145,098 in wages for the second quarter. However, the indictment alleges that Yaya Flowtiques had no employees during that period. Brown fraudulently claimed tax credits under the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC) program, which led to the issuance of two U.S. Treasury checks totaling $177,000 in refunds…