February 20, 2020

BATON ROUGE – A Metairie tax preparer faces multiple felony charges for an alleged scheme involving millions of dollars in fraudulent charitable donations and improper business expense deductions.

Investigators with the Louisiana Department of Revenue say Brischea Bowman Johnson (Booking Photo) submitted more than 100 state tax returns claiming illegitimate deductions for more than $1.4 million in fake business expenses and more than $2.3 million in fabricated church donations. Johnson’s clients told investigators they had not provided her with documentation for any such claims, and that Johnson submitted the returns without their knowledge. The false tax returns resulted in approximately $181,244 in fraudulent refunds.

Johnson was arrested on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of principal to felony theft, principal to filing or maintaining false public records and principal to illegal transmission of monetary funds.

Johnson is the 72^nd person arrested under a joint anti-tax fraud initiative of the Louisiana Department of Revenue and the state Attorney General’s office.