A federal indictment announced Wednesday accuses six people tied to one Mobile, Alabama, tax shop of filing more than 9,000 false returns that sought more than $177 million in refunds, about $81 million of which the IRS actually issued, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors say Jennifer Beverly, 47, owned and ran JB Accounting Tax Service LLC in Mobile from roughly 2022 through 2024. Five of her employees are charged alongside her: Jadasha Bowman, 28; Kennedy Lawrence Stovall Winston, 42; Solida Lucille Green, 36; Paris Lovett, also known as Paris Johnson, 30; and Shermeka Benjamin, 38.

The indictment alleges the scheme ran from about 2021 through 2024. The returns allegedly carried false Schedule C statements, COVID-19 credits, fuel tax credits, credit repayments, estimated tax payments, Schedule A and Schedule 3 statements, and education credits. Spread across 9,000 returns, the refunds claimed come to more than $19,000 apiece, and the roughly $81 million issued is about 46 percent of the $177 million sought.

All six are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Beverly also faces 63 wire fraud counts, Bowman 11, Winston five, Green 11, Lovett 11 and Benjamin four, 105 counts between them. If convicted, they face penalties that include prison, supervised release, fines and restitution.

The indictment also carries a forfeiture notice. It names a money judgment against each defendant for the proceeds they allegedly obtained, plus 12 real properties belonging to one or more of them.

"The allegations in this case reveal a staggering abuse of the federal tax system, involving more than 9,000 allegedly fraudulent tax returns, over $177 million in refund claims, and approximately $81 million in refunds issued," said Maisha Horton, acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation's Atlanta field office. Christopher Flowers, special agent in charge of the FBI's Mobile field office, said "today's coordinated arrests highlight the strong partnership between the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation."

The Justice Department folded the case into its fraud push. It says the investigation is part of enforcement led by the National Fraud Enforcement Division, which it says it created on April 7 and which supports the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Vice President J.D. Vance chairs that task force, which held its first meeting March 27 and was built around fraud in federal benefit programs. This case is a different kind of loss: refunds paid out by the Treasury.