Overview
- Regina Durkin pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to file false claims for seeking more than $7.7 million in refunds from the IRS.
- Prosecutors say Durkin and others submitted 14 false quarterly employment tax returns that claimed the employee retention credit and paid sick and family leave credit for companies that were not operating and paid no wages.
- Durkin faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 11, 2026 by a federal judge.
- The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division together with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
- Those tax credits were created during the COVID-19 pandemic to help employers keep workers on payroll and became widespread targets for fraud, a trend the Justice Department says it will continue to pursue with criminal cases and financial tracing by IRS‑CI.