North Texas Woman April Watson Indicted on 10 Counts in $680,000 COVID Relief Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced on October 26, 2026, that a federal grand jury has returned a 10-count indictment against North Texas resident April Watson, accusing her of defrauding pandemic relief programs of more than $680,000 and laundering the proceeds. She made her initial court appearance on October 23.
April Watson, 50, also known as April Watson Horton and April Shawnette Watson, is charged with four counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and four counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity (money laundering). U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said emergency relief programs were enacted as a vital lifeline to keep struggling businesses afloat, not to subsidize private home construction and luxury purchases, and that falsifying tax records and treating emergency small business relief like a personal lottery ticket is a serious federal crime.
According to court documents, between April 2020 and October 2021, Watson allegedly submitted fraudulent applications under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) on behalf of several entities she owned and operated, including Exotic Bliss Beauty LLC, Brain Evolution LLC and Southern Home Ventures, LLC. She allegedly fabricated payroll summaries and fictitious IRS W-2 and W-3 forms purportedly prepared by an outside payroll company; in reality, no such forms had been generated, and no business tax returns for wages or gross revenues had been filed with the IRS for 2019 or 2020.
Based on those submissions, Watson secured $210,698 in PPP loans disbursed by Kabbage, Inc., $299,800 in EIDL funds disbursed directly by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and $169,994 in additional PPP funding from JPMorgan Chase, totaling $680,492. The indictment further alleges she transferred over $114,000 toward construction of a personal residence in Cedar Hill and wired $40,000 to an individual associate.
If convicted, Watson faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 30 years for each bank fraud count and up to 10 years for each unlawful monetary transaction count. The government is also seeking forfeiture of her Cedar Hill residence and a monetary judgment for the full value of the illicit proceeds.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations as part of the Dallas El Dorado Task Force, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elise Aldendifer. IRS-CI Texas Field Office Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. said COVID loan fraud is heinous because criminals took money honest people needed to keep their businesses alive. An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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