Inmate and Others Indicted for Committing More Than $550 Million in Tax Fraud

FRESNO, Calif. - A federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging Kristopher Thomas, 36, Charmane Dozier, 44, Kettisha Thompson-Dozier, 55, and Sharon Vance, 36, with conspiracy to commit tax fraud, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

Thomas is currently serving a 50-year to life sentence at the Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP) in Delano, California, for a gang-related murder that he committed in the Los Angeles area in 2010. Dozier is married to Thompson-Dozier, who is Thomas' mother, and they live in Waldorf, Maryland. Vance is one of Thomas' girlfriends and lives in Hawthorne, California. The defendants were previously arrested in February 2024 on a federal criminal complaint.

According to court records, in mid-2022, a DEA investigation found that Thomas was leading a drug trafficking organization operating in Delano from his prison cell at KVSP using contraband cellphones and prison-issued tablets.

Intercepted drug-related communications to and from Thomas' cellphones and tablets showed that he was also running a multimillion-dollar tax fraud scheme with Dozier, Thompson-Dozier, and Vance. The DEA requested assistance from IRS-Criminal Investigation and the FBI on the tax fraud scheme.

The defendants' tax fraud scheme exploited the IRS Employee Retention Credit (ERC). The ERC was enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage businesses to retain their employees by giving the businesses thousands of dollars in refundable tax credits per employee retained from March 2020 through December 2021. The amount of the ERC was determined by the number of employees the businesses had and the wages paid to those employees. The credit was claimed and paid out based on payroll tax returns that were filed quarterly.

The defendants filed fraudulent payroll tax returns for fabricated, existing, and defunct businesses that misrepresented the number of employees the businesses had, and the wages paid to those employees to increase the amount of the ERC that the businesses received to claim large tax refunds. They obtained the information for the businesses through various means, including from their family members, friends, acquaintances, and, at times, engaging in identity theft. They also solicited businesses to let them apply for the ERC on their behalf in exchange for exorbitant commissions.

Altogether, from January 2022 through July 2023, the defendants filed hundreds of fraudulent payroll tax returns claiming over $550 million in tax refunds. The refunds were sought on behalf of over 100 businesses and several million dollars was actually paid out. The money was used for personal expenditures, including jewelry and trips to Disney World and Las Vegas. For the Las Vegas trip, Thomas paid to have attendees driven to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, party for the night at a luxury penthouse, and fly back to Los Angeles on a private jet.

This case is the product of an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Barton and Jeffrey Spivak are prosecuting the case.

If convicted, the defendants each face maximum statutory penalties of 10 years in prison. Thomas has also been indicted in a separate, federal methamphetamine trafficking case where he faces a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This effort is part of a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation, one of five interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the U.S. Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces use prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.