{"id":58944,"date":"2025-05-22T17:22:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T00:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=58944"},"modified":"2025-05-22T17:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T00:22:52","slug":"hollywood-man-sentenced-to-nearly-5-years-in-prison-for-fraudulently-seeking-millions-of-dollars-in-covid-business-tax-breaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=58944","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood man sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for fraudulently seeking millions of dollars in COVID business tax breaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"69\" data-end=\"323\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"69\" data-end=\"86\">LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"69\" data-end=\"323\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2717 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IRS-Forms-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IRS-Forms-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IRS-Forms-1024x677.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IRS-Forms-90x60.jpg 90w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IRS-Forms-180x120.jpg 180w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IRS-Forms-95x64.jpg 95w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A <strong data-start=\"89\" data-end=\"106\">Hollywood man<\/strong> was sentenced to<strong> four years and nine\u00a0months in federal prison<\/strong> for attempting to fraudulently obtain over <strong data-start=\"199\" data-end=\"214\">$65 million<\/strong> in COVID-related tax credits by falsely claiming his fake farming business was eligible for pandemic relief, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"325\" data-end=\"580\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"325\" data-end=\"349\">Kevin J. Gregory, 57<\/strong>, was also ordered to pay <strong data-start=\"375\" data-end=\"407\">$2.77 million in restitution<\/strong> by U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton. He pleaded guilty in <strong data-start=\"473\" data-end=\"489\">January 2024<\/strong> to one count of making false claims to the IRS and has been in custody since <strong data-start=\"567\" data-end=\"579\">May 2023, according to authorities.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"582\" data-end=\"966\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">From <strong data-start=\"587\" data-end=\"618\">November 2020 to April 2022<\/strong>, officials stated that Gregory submitted bogus tax filings for a fictitious company, <strong data-start=\"682\" data-end=\"710\">Elijah USA Farm Holdings<\/strong>, claiming it operated out of Beverly Hills. He falsely stated the business had employees and qualified for the <strong data-start=\"822\" data-end=\"851\">Employee Retention Credit<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"856\" data-end=\"882\">Paid Sick Leave Credit<\/strong> \u2014 federal programs designed to help legitimate businesses impacted by the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"968\" data-end=\"1174\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1530 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-90x60.jpg 90w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-180x120.jpg 180w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-95x64.jpg 95w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In one filing alone, Gregory requested a <strong data-start=\"1009\" data-end=\"1033\">$23.8 million refund<\/strong>, claiming Elijah Farm employed 33 workers and paid $1.6 million in wages. In reality, the company had no employees and made no tax deposits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"1176\" data-end=\"1285\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">The IRS paid out a portion of the false claims, and Gregory spent over <strong data-start=\"1247\" data-end=\"1263\">$2.7 million<\/strong> on personal expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"1287\" data-end=\"1441\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">The case was investigated by <strong data-start=\"1316\" data-end=\"1346\">IRS Criminal Investigation<\/strong> and prosecuted by <strong data-start=\"1365\" data-end=\"1412\">Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Williams<\/strong> of the Major Frauds Section.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES A Hollywood man was sentenced to four years and nine\u00a0months in federal prison for attempting to fraudulently obtain over $65 million in COVID-related tax credits by falsely claiming his fake&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hollywood man sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for fraudulently seeking millions of dollars in COVID business tax breaks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES A 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