Marrero Woman Guilty of Tax Fraud and PPP Fraud

NEW ORLEANS - On April 21, 2026, AMANDA WILKERSON ("WILKERSON"), age 57, a resident of Marrero, Louisiana, pled guilty to a Bill of Information charging her with one count of failure to pay over payroll/trust fund taxes, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7202, one count of failure to file her individual income tax return, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203, and one count of providing false statements on a government Cares Act Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP") loan application, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.

According to court documents, WILKERSON owned and operated Divine Purpose Home Care LLC ("Divine"), a home healthcare business. Beginning in or about 2017 through December 2024, WILKERSON withheld taxes from her employees' paychecks, including federal income taxes, Medicare, and social security taxes (commonly referred to as payroll taxes or "trust fund"). WILKERSON then failed to properly report Divine's trust fund taxes and failed to remit $57,000 to the IRS, which represented the trust fund taxes WILKERSON withheld from her employees' wages in the third quarter of 2023. In 2023, WILKERSON earned over $1.6 million of income but failed to file her 2023 individual income tax return. Also, in February 2021, WILKERSON made materially false and fraudulent statements to the Small Business Administration ("SBA") on her PPP loan application. In her application, WILKERSON stated that a non-operational business she established in 2016 had annual gross income of $75,639 in 2019. To support her false PPP application, WILKERSON submitted a fraudulent IRS Individual Tax Return, Form 1040, Form Schedule C that falsely reported that the non-operational business had gross income of $75,639. WILKERSON knew that the business was never operational and did not have gross annual earnings of $75,639 and that the IRS Form 1040 Schedule C she submitted in support of the loan application was a false document, resulting in her receipt of a SBA backed PPP loan in the amount of approximately $19,907. In August 2021, WILKERSON applied to the SBA to have the PPP loan she received, forgiven. The SBA approved WILKERSON's forgiveness application, and WILKERSON was not required to repay the PPP loan she fraudulently received.

WILKERSON faces a possible maximum sentence of 11 years of imprisonment, up to a $600,000 fine, up to 3 years of supervised release, and payment of a mandatory $250 mandatory special assessment fee. WILKERSON also may be ordered to pay restitution.

The case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations. The prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiwana Wright, of the Financial Crimes Unit.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division's prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Since the inception of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and has seized over $75 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds. More information can be found at Justice.gov/OPA/pr/justice-department-takes-action-against-covid-19-fraud.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars. Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.