Inside the $24M Michael Houser Embezzlement Case and the IRS’s Latest Tax Fraud Sentences

The Casino Manager Who Stole Twenty Four Million Dollars

Muskogee, Oklahoma
Michael Houser spent years running gaming operations for the Muscogee Creek Nation. He also spent those years skimming money like it was his full time job.

From 2016 to 2024 he stole just under twenty five million dollars. Then he didn’t report any of it to the IRS. In one year alone he hid more than seven point eight million dollars of income.

The tax loss was over eight point two million dollars, and he now owes restitution to both the tribe and the IRS. His new home is federal prison for seventy months.

The Golf Course Guy Who Used COVID Loans as His Piggy Bank

New Hampshire
Business owner Michael Kirouac pulled more than one million dollars in EIDL loans across multiple companies. The loans were supposed to be used for working capital. He used them to buy a golf course.

He also grabbed a two hundred sixty thousand dollar loan while he was already in the process of selling the company tied to that loan. The SBA was not informed.

He faces up to twenty years in prison and sentencing is coming in January.

The Chiropractor Who Tried Every Possible Tax Evasion Move

Alabama
Chiropractor Gary Edwards owed more than two point five million dollars in back taxes. Instead of paying, he got creative.

He hid bank accounts. Moved money into his spouse’s name. Filed fake legal paperwork to kill federal tax liens. Lied to IRS investigators. And ignored penalties and interest that climbed toward two million dollars.

He got seventy eight months in prison for tax evasion and obstructing the IRS.

The Philly Preparer Who Fabricated Everything

Philadelphia
Tax preparer James Sirleaf built a whole business on fake returns.
Fake deductions. Fake expenses. Fake dependents. Fake everything.

He prepped fraudulent returns for clients from 2016 to 2019 and then filed false ones for himself. The tax loss was two hundred nineteen thousand dollars.

He got a year and a day plus supervised release.

The Restaurant Owner Who Hid Almost a Million Dollars

Wyoming
Shu Ping Chen owned China Buffet and spent five years underreporting cash receipts. She shaved almost one million dollars off the books, cheating the IRS and the state out of more than three hundred fifty thousand in taxes.

When investigators raided her restaurant and house, she tried to destroy records on the spot.

She got eighteen months in prison, a seventy five thousand dollar fine and more than three hundred fifty thousand in restitution.

The Preparer Who Invented Fake Businesses for Her Clients

Indiana
Tax preparer Anita Perez filed more than four hundred sixty fraudulent returns. Her favorite move was creating fake Schedule C businesses with fake losses to pump up refunds. She also inflated medical deductions and other items on Schedule A.

The tax loss was more than one point five million dollars. She owes almost two million in restitution and got eighteen months in prison.

The Refund Scammer Who Went All In on Fake ERC Claims

Tennessee
Aylissa Glidewell and her crew created businesses that didn’t exist, had no employees and no operations. But they filed for Employee Retention Credit refunds anyway.

The group claimed more than three point four million dollars. The IRS mistakenly paid out one point eight million.

Glidewell got fifty months in prison and owes one point eight million in restitution.