Date: December 7, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov WINSTON-SALEM — Michelle Renee Hollis, of Winston-Salem, pled guilty today to one count of making a false statement related to fraudulently obtaining an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and administered by the Small Business Association (SBA), announced United States Attorney Sandra J. Hairston. According to court documents, Hollis received an EIDL loan for a business called Hollis House. The loan application falsified the business's gross revenues and number of employees. Based on the fraudulent representations, the SBA granted Hollis an EIDL loan of $134,900 and an EIDL grant of $5,000. Following disbursement of the loan, Hollis used the proceeds to purchase land in California and a 2017 Porsche Cayenne. Sentencing is scheduled to take place on March 12, 2024, at 3 p.m. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, courtroom number two, before United States District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder. At sentencing, Hollis faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a period of supervised release of up to three years, and monetary penalties. The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI) is investigating the case, and it is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Waid. On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
