Louisiana Home Care Owner Sentenced to 13 Months in Tax Case Announced as Part of National Enforcement Surge
New Orleans is a city in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced on October 14 that Amanda Wilkerson of Marrero was sentenced on September 22 to 13 months in prison for failing to pay payroll taxes, failing to file individual income tax returns, and providing false statements on a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application. The case was announced as part of the Justice Department's first-ever National Tax Enforcement Surge, which over roughly six weeks brought prosecutorial actions against 76 defendants in cases involving more than $490 million in intended losses; see GSM's national roundup published earlier today for the full sweep.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wilkerson, 57, owned and operated Divine Purpose Home Care LLC, a home healthcare business. Court documents show that from 2017 through 2024, she failed to properly report the company's payroll taxes and failed to pay over to the IRS $1.1 million in payroll taxes she had collected from her employees' wages. In 2023, she earned more than $1.6 million in income but failed to file her individual income tax return for that year, and for years she failed to file returns and failed to pay the taxes due. In 2021, she also made false statements to the Small Business Administration on a PPP loan application, stating that a non-operational business she had established had annual gross income of $75,639 in 2019 and submitting a fraudulent tax return in support; the application resulted in her receiving $19,907.
Wilkerson pleaded guilty in May 2026 to a three-count bill of information charging her with failure to pay over payroll taxes (26 U.S.C. § 7202), failure to file her individual income tax return (26 U.S.C. § 7203), and providing false statements on a PPP loan application (18 U.S.C. § 1001). U.S. District Judge Brandon S. Long sentenced her to 13 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered her to pay $2,367,686 in restitution to the IRS and $19,907 to the Small Business Administration. The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiwana Wright of the Financial Crimes Unit. "Today's surge signals a day of reckoning for tax fraudsters nationwide," Courcelle said in the release.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 新奥尔良黑尔·博格斯联邦大楼（美国路易斯安那东区联邦地区法院所在地）。Tony Webster／Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 2.0
- 2026-10-14DOJ's First National Tax Enforcement Surge Targets 76 Defendants in More Than $490 Million in Tax Fraud
- 2026-10-14Louisiana Home Care Owner Sentenced to 13 Months in Tax Case Announced as Part of National Enforcement SurgeThis story
