Detroit rapper Sameerah “Creme” Marrel, who was on the run from the law for tax fraud, was arrested on Friday.
The aspiring rapper is accused of stealing $5 million from the IRS by filing 122 tax returns using stolen IDs.
Marrel, 42, and an accomplice Noelle Brown, known as “Nikki Brown,” were charged in July 2021 with aggravated identity theft, false claims, and conspiracy, Fox News affiliate Fox2 Detroit reports.
The two aspiring rappers formed a rap duo called Deuces Wild.
According to an IRS complaint, the two women filed 122 fraudulent tax returns and claimed withholdings and refunds of more than $13.6 million from 2013 to 2017.
Marrel did not stay in contact with the court, according to the complaint. She missed meetings with pretrial services, and did not return text messages from her own attorney.
On Oct. 7, authorities visited a wig shop called “The Wig Cleaners” on West Nine Mile Road in Oak Park, where Marrel claimed she worked. However, there was no business operating at that location.
The owner of the building told officials that someone would show up occasionally to collect the mail, but that the shop had been vacant for approximately six months.
Federal agents declared Marrel a fugitive from the law after she failed to contact court officials since July and had apparently skipped town.
The Internal Revenue Service paid $5,539,049 to the two women before discovering the fraud. The women also filed false tax returns using trusts.
“The returns claimed that the IRS had withheld large amounts of income tax from the trusts purportedly filing the returns and that those trusts were therefore entitled to large refunds of the excess income tax withheld,” IRS agent Tyler Goodnight said in an affidavit.
