North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Government Out of Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

November 2, 2026

Kareem Highsmith, 51, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in federal court in Buffalo, New York, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer to making false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims against a government agency, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York announced Nov. 2. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to the release, Highsmith owned CMK Transportation and Delivery Service LLC. On July 3, 2022, he filed an IRS Form 941 for the quarter ending June 30, 2020, falsely claiming the company had four paid employees and seeking COVID-era Employee Retention Credits and Paid Sick and Family Leave Credits; CMK had no operations or employees that quarter, and the IRS paid a refund of $77,743.97. He filed 10 more Form 941s for later quarters through Dec. 31, 2022, falsely claiming three or four employees, and received about $324,636.81.

Prosecutors said he also helped other businesses file false Form 941s that were paid $603,572.21, receiving about $78,700 for that help, and submitted three Paycheck Protection Program and four Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications with material misrepresentations, receiving $197,839.57. DOJ puts the total loss from his conduct at $3,780,051.87.

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and is part of the Trump Administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

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