Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Orlando, FL –A grand jury has returned a federal indictment charging Jason Morales (44, Chagrin Falls, Ohio) with six counts of bank fraud. If convicted, Morales faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison on each count. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
The owner of a tax preparation business in Tennessee pleaded guilty today to orchestrating a massive fraud scheme that steered approximately $80 million in pandemic relief funds designed to help small businesses and workers to herself and her clients.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Renata Walton, 45, of Mississippi, owned and operated a tax preparation business in Moscow, Tennessee. From approximately March 2022 through August 2023, Walton conspired with one of her employees to file false tax returns for clients seeking fraudulent refunds based on the employee retention credit (ERC) and paid sick and family leave credit. Congress created both the ERC and the paid sick and family leave credit to aid struggling businesses during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The employee, Nicole Jones, also known as Nicole Dickerson, of Cordova, Tennessee, previously pleaded guilty on Aug. 15, 2025, for her role in the offense.
Among other schemes, Walton and Jones reported fictitious wages on clients’ tax returns to fraudulently claim the ERC and paid sick and family leave credits, knowing their clients had not paid wages to their employees in those amounts and were not entitled to the credits. Walton also filed false applications to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, government funding intended to provide financial assistance to Americans suffering economic harm during the COVID-19 pandemic. To support these false claims, Walton submitted false tax forms to the SBA. As a result of the scheme, clients received tax refunds, often exceeding $100,000, and then Walton and Jones received a fee from the clients, which was typically around $15,000 per return.
When the IRS began contacting clients to recover the fraudulently issued pandemic program funds, Walton obstructed the IRS’s efforts. She gave the clients letters to provide to the IRS falsely asserting, among other things, that the fictitious wages Walton and Jones reported on their tax returns to claim the ERC were legitimate. Walton and Jones also did not file tax returns for tax year 2022, so they did not pay taxes on the income they earned through their criminal schemes.
In total, Walton filed tax returns and other documents claiming nearly $80 million in pandemic funds and tax refunds that she and her clients were not entitled to receive, causing a loss of more than $52 million to the United States. Jones was also responsible for a portion of these fraudulent claims.
Both Walton and Jones face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count of money laundering, a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count of assisting in the preparation of a false tax return and a maximum penalty of one year in prison for willful failure to file a return. Walton also faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Walton is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18. Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant of the Western District of Tennessee made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Caroline Pearson of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Bateman and Tony Arvin for the Western District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A second man, Taliau Tauvela-Afalava, 31 of Aiea, Hawaii, was charged and made his initial appearance in court yesterday for his role in a murder stemming from the victim’s alleged failure to pay for methamphetamine. This superseding indictment adds Tauvela-Afalava as a co-defendant with Filimone Tavake, 38, of San Francisco, whom the grand jury indicted on March 21, 2024 and law enforcement arrested on March 22, 2024.
According to court documents, on March 27, 2021, Tauvela-Afalava and Tavake allegedly killed the victim in connection with a drug distribution conspiracy. The victim was shot multiple times as he was standing outside his home. Video surveillance footage obtained during the investigation showed a vehicle with no license plates driving near the victim’s home shortly before the shooting. Subsequently, the vehicle parked and video captured two males walking toward the street where the victim’s residence was located. A few minutes later, gun shots were heard on the surveillance video, and the same two males were seen running from the direction of the victim’s residence toward the vehicle. Law enforcement identified and located the vehicle seen in the video. A law enforcement analysis connected the vehicle’s infotainment system to phone numberes linked to Tavake and Tauvela-Afalava.
Tauvela-Afalava is charged with carry, use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime; causing the death of a person through use of a firearm; killing while engaged in conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
If convicted, Tauvela-Afalava faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division;U.S. Attorney Kenneth M. Sorenson for the District of Hawaii; Special Agent in Charge David K. Porter of the FBI Honolulu Field Office; and InterimChief Rade K. Vanic of the Honolulu Police Department made the announcement.
The FBI and Honolulu Police Department are investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Christina Taylor (detailee) of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Nammar for the District of Hawaii are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – On February 24, 2026, CHRISTOPHER MYERS (“MYERS”), age 33, a resident of Slidell, was sentenced on February 26, 2026 by United Stated District Judge Susie Morgan, after previously pleading guilty, to six months of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle. A $100 mandatory special assessment fee was also imposed.
Source: United States Navy
The U.S. Navy will bring more than 70 Sailors to Hawai‘i for Hawai‘i Navy Week, March 9-15, as part of the Navy Week outreach program. The Navy will partner with the communities of Honolulu and Hilo to engage residents through a weeklong series of performances, educational events, and community service projects.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Four Co-Defendants Previously Pleaded Guilty for Their Roles in Compelling the Labor of H-2A Visa Recipients Throughout the Southeastern United States
Alexander Villatoro Moreno, age 53, also known as Quichi, pleaded guilty in federal court in Tampa, Florida, to conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida had previously returned a six-count indictment against multiple defendants for their roles in the conspiracy, which victimized Mexican H-2A workers who, between 2015 and 2017, had worked in the United States harvesting fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products.
According to court documents, Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants operated and managed Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), a farm labor contracting company, that functioned as a criminal enterprise compelling victims to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina. Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants fraudulently recruited Mexican nationals to come into the United States on short-term, H-2A, agricultural visas and misled the United States to secure visas for the victims. Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants charged workers exorbitant recruitment fees to work for LVH and lied to the victims about how much they would be paid, the hours they would work, the working conditions and the reimbursement they would receive for paying recruitment fees and other expenses. The workers were then compelled to provide long hours of physically demanding agricultural labor, six to seven days a week, for far less pay than they were entitled to under the law.
In addition to the work conditions, Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants used various coercive means to compel the victims’ labor, including imposing debts on workers; confiscating the workers’ passports; subjecting workers to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions; verbally abusing and humiliating the workers; threatening workers with arrest, jailtime and deportation; isolating workers by preventing them from interacting with anyone other than LVH employees; and threatening to physically harm the workers’ family members back in Mexico if the workers failed to comply with their demands.
When officials began investigating, Villatoro Moreno obstructed the federal investigation by helping to prepare false payroll information to conceal underpayments to the workers and distributing fake reimbursement receipts to the victims to make it appear that LVH was complying with the law by reimbursing the workers for their travel-related expenses.
Villatoro Moreno’s four co-defendants previously pleaded guilty in connection with their roles in the scheme. Bladimir Moreno, Alexander Villatoro Moreno’s brother, owned LVH and pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Efrain Cabrera Rodas and Christina Gamez, LVH supervisors, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act while Guadalupe Mendes Mendoza, another LVH supervisor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation. In 2022, Bladimir Moreno was sentenced to 118 months in prison and ordered to pay over $175,000 in restitution to the victims while Rodas and Gamez were sentenced to 41 months and 37 months in prison, respectively. Mendoza was also sentenced in 2022 to serve eight months of home detention and a $5,500 fine to be paid over 24 months of supervised release.
The Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, investigated the case. The Task Force received assistance from the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Colorado Legal Services Migrant Farm Worker Division, Legal Aid Services of Oregon Farmworker Program and Indiana Legal Services Worker Rights and Protection Project.
The Government of Mexico, including the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), provided significant assistance in the extradition of Villatoro Moreno to the United States. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and extradition of Villatoro Moreno.
Trial Attorney Matthew Thiman of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilyssa Spergel for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case. Former Trial Attorney and current Assistant U.S. Attorney Maryan Zhuravitsky for the District of Maryland also prosecuted the case.
Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that ROBERT W. LEDERHILGER III was sentenced today to 73 months in prison for perpetrating a seven-year scheme to defraud small businesses across the United States, which resulted in losses of nearly $9 million to tens of thousands of victims.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
MARLON DAMIAN WHITE, also known as Damian Marlon White, 47, a citizen of Jamaica last residing in Hartford, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to six months of imprisonment for making a false statement in a U.S. passport application.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
DAYTON, Ohio – A federal judge has found an Atlanta-area man guilty of wire fraud and theft of public funds. In a separate bench trial, a second man was also found guilty of filing a false, retaliatory lien against a different federal judge.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Greenbelt, Maryland – A Maryland woman received a federal-prison sentence today, in connection with a money laundering scheme. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Tanoa Tanoh, 35, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, to 30 months in prison and ordered her to repay $1,037,762 to victims of the fraud scheme.