BATON ROUGE — A Louisiana couple arrested in Florida was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on fraud charges connected to a scheme to commit tax fraud, state officials said. 

The Louisiana Department of Revenue and the Attorney General's office said that William and Jill Lewis, both from Madisonville, submitted false state income tax returns claiming wages and withholding from a nonexistent employer. The fraudulent tax returns were for 2021 through 2024, years that the couple submitted tax returns previously and received refunds for. 

This scheme resulted in the theft of $50,700 in fraudulent refunds and the attempted theft of an additional $32,113, state officials say. 

The pair was arrested in Osceola County, Florida, in March and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Wednesday. They were charged with 11 counts of filing false public records, 11 counts of computer fraud, nine counts of theft and two counts of attempted theft.