Five Former IRS Employees Sentenced in Connection with COVID-19 Fraud

Memphis, TN – Five former IRS employees were recently sentenced for defrauding federal COVID-19 relief programs.  This case was brought as a part of an interagency effort to combat and prevent such fraud by federal employees. 

According to court documents, Brian Saulsberry, 48, of Memphis, was employed by the IRS as a Program Evaluation and Risk Analyst in the Human Capital Office in Memphis, Tennessee.  Saulsberry laundered funds he received from a scheme to defraud the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, a federal stimulus program authorized to provide loans to small businesses experiencing substantial financial disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Saulsberry submitted false EIDL applications and obtained $171,400 in loan funds. After obtaining the fraudulent loan funds, Saulsberry transferred the funds to his personal checking account.  He then used the loan funds for purposes not authorized by the EIDL Program, but instead transferred $100,000 to an investment account, knowing that the property involved in the transaction was derived from unlawful activity. 

In addition to Saulsberry, four other former IRS employees, Courtney Quinshe Westmoreland, 40, Fatina Hewitt, 37, Roderick DeMarco White II, 29, and Tina Humes, 58, were convicted for defrauding federal stimulus programs authorized as part of the CARES Act, including the EIDL Program and the Paycheck Protection Program.  The five former federal employees collectively sought over $1 million.  They then used the loan funds to invest in personal accounts, purchase cars and luxury goods, and pay for personal travel, including trips to Las Vegas.

In October 2022, the Justice Department announced charges against the five former IRS employees.  Saulsberry pled guilty to one count of money laundering in December 2023.  On September 25, 2024, Saulsberry was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge Sheryl H. Lipman to 18 months of imprisonment with 2 years of supervised release to follow and was ordered to provide $171,400 to the Government in forfeiture.  There is no parole in the federal system. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting United States Attorney Reagan Fondren for the Western District of Tennessee, Acting Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) Heather M. Hill, and Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware of the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) made the announcement. 

TIGTA and SBA-OIG investigated the case.

Assistant Chief Justin Woodard and Trial Attorneys Sara Porter, Kelly Z. Walters, and Thomas D. Campbell of the Fraud Section’s Gulf Coast Strike Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carroll L. André III for the Western District of Tennessee prosecuted the cases.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

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