Two North Texas men federally indicted in tax refund fraud scheme

Date: April 21, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

The CEO and a supervisor at Empowered Finances, a tax preparation business, were federally indicted on April 7, 2026, for their roles in filing fraudulent tax returns with the IRS, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.

According to the indictment, during the years 2020 through 2023, Terrance Hatley of McKinney, Texas, and Jason Pogue of Dallas, Texas allegedly conspired to file false tax returns through Hatley’s businesses, Empowered Finances, formerly known as Griggs Financial, located in Addison, Texas. The charges state that the fraudulent tax returns filed at Empowered sought false refunds by either fabricating businesses with large losses or by claiming Coronavirus leave credits made available under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. As a tax preparation fee, customers were often charged about a third of the fraudulent refund amount.

In addition to conspiracy to defraud the United States, Hatley and Pogue were charged with 23 counts and 10 counts, respectively, of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each of the other charges.

IRS-Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation.  Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Ignacio Perez de la Cruz is prosecuting the case.

The IRS has published the Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2026. Those can be accessed here: Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2026.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.