Nola Reporter

United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that Celina Bolton-Fultz, a 35-year-old resident of Slidell, Louisiana, has pled guilty to multiple charges related to tax fraud and COVID-19 relief fraud. On October 3, 2024, Bolton-Fultz admitted guilt to thirty counts of assisting in filing false tax returns, five counts of filing her own false tax returns, four counts of making false statements, and two counts of theft of government funds. Sentencing is scheduled for January 23, 2025.

Court documents reveal that between 2018 and 2022, Bolton-Fultz submitted fraudulent tax returns for seven clients from her tax preparation business. She inflated their income by adding fictitious "household help" income to secure inflated tax credits. Additionally, she manipulated her own income on tax returns from 2017 through 2021 by underreporting gross receipts and reporting false expenses.

Bolton-Fultz also confessed to committing fraud involving the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). She made false statements on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications in 2020 and 2021 by providing inaccurate information about her businesses' payrolls and submitting fake tax forms. Furthermore, she was involved in fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) applications by inflating revenues and expenses with false documentation. In total, she received $204,103 through these fraudulent activities.

As part of her plea agreement, Bolton-Fultz agreed to pay at least $405,133 in restitution to the IRS and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

The potential penalties include up to three years imprisonment for each tax-related count; five years for each PPP fraud count; ten years for each EIDL fraud count; fines up to $100,000 per tax count; $250,000 per PPP or EIDL fraud count; supervised release terms up to three years for PPP/EIDL frauds; one year for the tax offenses; along with mandatory special assessment fees.

The COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force was established on May 17, 2021 by the Attorney General to combat pandemic-related fraud through coordination among various government agencies. For more information about combating COVID-19 related fraud or reporting such incidents can be done via the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline or its web complaint form.

The U.S. Attorney's Office acknowledged assistance from IRS Criminal Investigations in this case with Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas D. Moses leading the prosecution.