A federal grand jury has returned a 10-count indictment against April Watson, 50, of North Texas, also known as April Watson Horton and April Shawnette Watson, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould for the Northern District of Texas announced on Monday. She is charged with four counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and four counts of money laundering.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

According to court documents, between April 2020 and October 2021 Watson allegedly submitted fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications for entities she owned, including Exotic Bliss Beauty LLC, Brain Evolution LLC and Southern Home Ventures, LLC, supported by allegedly fabricated payroll summaries and fictitious IRS W-2 and W-3 forms.

Prosecutors say the submissions secured $210,698 in PPP loans from Kabbage, Inc., $299,800 in EIDL funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration and $169,994 in additional PPP funding from JPMorgan Chase — a total of $680,492 (yaani about 6.8 lakh dollars). Particle, reporting the same indictment, gave the same breakdown and total.

Source: Particle News

The indictment further alleges Watson transferred over $114,000 toward construction of a personal residence in Cedar Hill and wired $40,000 to an associate. The government is seeking forfeiture of the Cedar Hill residence and a money judgment for the full value of the proceeds, the Justice Department said.

Watson made her initial court appearance on Oct. 23. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each wire fraud count, up to 30 years on each bank fraud count and up to 10 years on each money-laundering count. The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations as part of the Dallas El Dorado Task Force. An indictment is merely an allegation, and Watson is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.