Nevada Woman Pleads Guilty to Nearly $100 Million COVID-19 Tax Credit Fraud

The IRS warned last year that the vast majority of an employment tax credit program it reviewed showed ‘risk of being improper.’

The Department of Justice in Washington on Jan. 9, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A woman from Nevada involved in defrauding the United States of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of COVID-19 pandemic tax credits has pleaded guilty in the case, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Candies Goode-McCoy of Las Vegas “conspired with others to file tax returns seeking fraudulent refunds based on the employee retention credit (ERC) and paid sick and family leave credit,” the agency said in a Feb. 14 statement. “From around June 2022 through September 2023, McCoy filed approximately 1,227 false tax returns for her businesses and others claiming these refundable credits.”