12 Years In Prison For NJ Man In $170M COVID-19 Tax Relief Fraud Case

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

April 10, 2026

A Teaneck tax preparer was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for orchestrating what prosecutors say is the largest COVID-19 tax relief fraud case tried to date in the nation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced Wednesday.

Leon Haynes, 52, was ordered to serve prison time following a six-day jury trial in November 2025. Haynes was convicted of 15 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false tax returns, one count of mail fraud, and two counts of tax evasion.

“Pandemic relief programs were created to support Americans during a national crisis, but Haynes — a tax preparer entrusted to help people comply with the law — treated those programs as a personal cash machine,” U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said in a statement. “Our office will continue to pursue those who exploit emergency relief programs and hold them accountable for stealing from the American people.”

U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini handed down the sentence on Wednesday. He also ordered Haynes to pay more than $55 million to the IRS and imposed five years of supervised release following his prison term.

During the pandemic, Congress created an employee retention tax credit and sick and family leave credits that small businesses used to stay afloat amid lockdowns and pandemic restrictions, and to keep employees on payroll.

Prosecutors say Haynes ran his scheme from November 2020 through May 2023, submitting more than 1,900 fraudulent employment tax returns to the IRS that falsely claimed employee retention and sick leave credits on behalf of himself and his clients. The filings contained multiple false statements, officials said, like forms that claimed false employee headcounts to maximize payouts.

In total, he sought more than $170 million in fraudulent refunds and collected more than $55 million until investigators caught up with the scheme, according to prosecutors.

Haynes also pocketed fees from his clients — a cut of each refund check — and failed to report that as income on his own taxes, prosecutors said.

Vando Cardoso and Michael Koribanics, Haynes’ attorneys, declined to comment.

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