Five former IRS employees were recently sentenced for defrauding federal COVID-19 relief programs. This case was part of an interagency effort to combat and prevent such fraud by federal employees.
According to court documents, Brian Saulsberry, 48, of Memphis, who worked as a Program Evaluation and Risk Analyst in the IRS’s Human Capital Office, laundered funds from a scheme to defraud the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. This federal stimulus program, part of the CARES Act, was designed to provide loans to small businesses facing financial disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Saulsberry submitted false EIDL applications and obtained $171,400 in loan funds, which he transferred to his personal account and used for unauthorized purposes, including transferring $100,000 to an investment account.
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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 of defrauding federal stimulus programs such as the EIDL Program and the Paycheck Protection Program. Collectively, the five former employees sought over $1 million in loan funds, which they used for personal investments, luxury purchases, and travel.
In October 2022, the Justice Department announced charges against these individuals. Saulsberry pled guilty to one count of money laundering in December 2023. On September 25, 2024, he was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge Sheryl H. Lipman to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $171,400 to the government.
The case was announced by 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). The case was investigated by TIGTA and SBA-OIG.
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 enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about attempted COVID-19 fraud can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
For more information, contact the Media Relations Team at USATNW.Media@usdoj.gov. Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Facebook or X at @WDTNNews for office news and updates.
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Memphis Man Resentenced to Fifty Years
Louie Holloway, a 43-year-old from Memphis, was resentenced to fifty years in federal prison for the attempted robbery and related firearm crimes involving John Stambaugh in 2002, following legal changes that vacated his original firearm conviction.