Nejlai Mitchell

Introduction

Nejlai Mitchell, a 48-year-old North Carolina tax return preparer, was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay a forfeiture money judgment of $13,890,697 for her role in a COVID-19 tax credit fraud scheme that sought nearly $24 million in fraudulent refunds . Mitchell, who owned and operated tax return preparation offices in Lumberton and Hope Mills, pleaded guilty to conspiring to prepare false tax returns claiming fraudulent refunds based on COVID-19 tax credits and to assisting in the preparation of additional fake returns . She is the lead defendant in a scheme in which seven co-conspirators — her own employees — have already pleaded guilty, five of them already sentenced .

Background Information

From April 2022 through May 2023, Mitchell and seven of her employees filed false tax returns seeking fraudulent refunds amounting to almost $24 million by exploiting paid sick and family leave credits, a COVID-19 relief measure Congress enacted to support struggling businesses . The refunds were claimed through the tax preparation business Mitchell ran, turning her offices in Lumberton and Hope Mills into the production line for the fraudulent filings . The scheme’s workforce was internal: the seven co-conspirators who pleaded guilty worked for her, including the business’s office manager, Whitnee Leach .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Mitchell drew five years in federal prison and a $13.9M forfeiture judgment; five of her seven co-conspirators are already sentenced.

Mitchell pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to preparing and filing false tax returns, and a federal judge sentenced her to five years in prison with the $13,890,697 forfeiture money judgment, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office . Whitnee Leach, the office manager, pleaded guilty in May 2026 to participating in the same conspiracy and filing false tax returns . The remaining six defendants pleaded guilty to preparing and filing false tax returns for clients . In September, the court sentenced Tiffany Moody to over two years; in July, Shaneen Ray and Eyoubo McBurney were sentenced to eighteen months each, Sylvia Swindell to sixteen months, and Katrena Stanback to six months . The scale of the scheme — nearly $24 million in refund claims filed through a single pair of small-town tax offices — is what separated Mitchell’s case from an ordinary preparer’s error: the filings were manufactured at volume, by a team, for three straight filing seasons .

Public Reaction and Consequences

United States Attorney Ellis Boyle said the nearly $24 million in fraudulent refunds “were not the result of mistakes or oversight”, saying Mitchell and her co-conspirators “deliberately stole COVID money intended to help struggling Eastern North Carolinians and used that to enrich themselves at the expense of hardworking taxpayers” . “This prison sentence holds Mitchell accountable for her role in a conspiracy that stole taxpayer funds and corrupted the tax filing process,” Boyle said, adding: “We are paying attention. We will find you. We will prosecute and convict you. You will go to cold steel federal prison. Cheaters. Never. Win.” The case has now produced prison sentences for at least six members of the conspiracy, with Mitchell’s five-year term the longest imposed so far .

Current Status

Mitchell is sentenced to five years in federal prison with the $13.9 million forfeiture judgment against her, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement of November 10, 2026 . Five of the seven co-conspirators in the same COVID fraud scheme have been sentenced, with the remaining pleas awaiting sentencing . Mitchell’s tax preparation business in Lumberton and Hope Mills was the instrument of the conspiracy, and its owner is now a convicted fraudster headed to federal prison .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Mitchell’s conviction ends her tax preparation business and substitutes a federal prison term and a multi-million-dollar forfeiture for the $1.2 million-scale fees the scheme’s ringleaders sought from pandemic relief programs . The case is also a caution for the industry she worked in: the credits her offices exploited were emergency relief meant for struggling businesses, and the courts have treated their systematic abuse as theft from taxpayers rather than paperwork error, as the U.S. Attorney’s own framing of the sentence makes plain .

Sources

• WMBF News, “8 women sentenced to prison in multi-million dollar Lumberton Covid fraud,” November 10, 2026 — source