A Lake Charles woman who operated a home healthcare company has come under federal law enforcement scrutiny over an alleged failure to pay nearly $400,000 in taxes.
Alicia Williams Higginbotham has pleaded not guilty to more than dozen federal charges over payroll taxes from 2020 to 2023. She faces 14 counts of failure to account for and pay over trust fund taxes — the income, Social Security and Medicare taxes an employer holds from employees’ paychecks in a trust for the federal government. She also faces four counts of failure to file an individual income tax return for her Calcasieu Parish company, 1st Abundant Home Care.
“Tax fraud is not a victimless crime — it harms employees, honest taxpayers and business owners, and the integrity of our American system,” said Louisiana Western District U.S. Attorney Zachary Keller in a statement. “Our office will aggressively pursue anyone who steals from their employees, evades lawful tax obligations and undermines the public’s trust in the fair and unbiased application of our federal tax laws.”
Andres Gomez, Higginbotham’s public defender, did not respond to phone and email messages for this story.
Higginbotham was arrested in September, released on a $25,000 bond and ordered to surrender her passport as a condition of her release. She faces up to five years in prison for each of the 14 counts related to payroll taxes and up to one year for each of the four counts related to the individual tax returns.
The phone number associated with 1st Abundant Home Care is no longer operational, and the business is listed as “not in good standing” with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office over failure to file an annual report.
Higginbotham started the business in 2008 under the name Professional Care of Louisiana. It is unclear how many people she employed.
This isn’t the first time Higginbotham and her business have faced legal action.
Last year, U.S. Judge James Cain Jr. of the Western District of Louisiana granted a former employee of 1st Abundant Home Care more than $16,000 for unpaid wages in 2022 and 2023.
Chastity Smith alleged that during her employment with 1st Abundant, Higginbotham failed to pay the minimum and overtime wages owed to her under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Smith was paid overtime for two pay periods in January 2021, according to payroll records attached to the lawsuit. But as time went by, Smith alleged she was not always paid overtime when she worked more than 40 hours a week through the end of her employment in July 2023. In August 2025, Cain awarded Smith more than $16,000 in damages, along with attorney fees, court costs and post-judgement interest.
Cain is also presiding over the tax fraud case, which is scheduled for a jury trial on April 5.
Higginbotham is just one of 76 defendants nationwide who have been recently targeted over tax fraud. Federal law enforcement officials say those cases add up to $490 million in lost revenue.
The Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, which was created earlier this year, led the effort with the IRS’s Criminal Investigation branch to take action in dozens of cases in September and October.
“Every dollar stolen through tax fraud is a dollar taken from the American people,” said U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement. “What we uncovered during this concentrated surge is only the tip of the iceberg.”