The Tax Times: IRS CI Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Business Report

Richard Weber, Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation - There is no doubt that we have had to be creative to overcome some of the budget challenges this year.

But in so doing, we
maintained a steady focus on what is important. Our highest priority is to
enforce our country’s tax laws and
support tax administration to ensure compliance with the law and combat fraud.

This annual report
includes case summaries that represent the diversity and complexity of those

investigations such as
tax-related identity theft, money laundering, public corruption and terrorist

financing. Our cases
touched almost every part of the world. 

They had a significant impact on tax administration and were some of the most successful in the history of CI. Some of the biggest stories of the year included:

Credit
Suisse, 

Bank Leumi, 

BNP Paribas, 

Liberty Reserve, 

Silk Road and 

Gerald Poynter.

In the largest criminal tax case ever filed, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid and

assist U.S. taxpayers in filing false income tax returns and agreed to pay a total of $2.6 billion.

Following the Credit Suisse investigation, IRS-CI led the case against Bank Leumi Group, a major Israeli international bank that admitted conspiring to aid and assist U.S. taxpayers to prepare and present false tax returns.

This unprecedented agreement marks the first time an Israeli bank has admitted to such criminal conduct. Bank Leumi Group will pay the U.S. a total of $270 million and cease to provide banking and investment services for all accounts held or beneficially owned by U.S. taxpayers.

BNP Paribas was the largest prosecution ever brought against a financial institution and one of the most significant criminal prosecutions of sanction evasion in U.S. history. Using our unique investigative skills, IRS-CI worked hard to protect the integrity of our financial system.

Liberty Reserve, one of the World's largest digital currency companies, and seven of its principals and employees were indicted for allegedly running a $6 billion money laundering scheme. Ross William Ulbricht, creator and owner of "Silk Road" website was indicted on charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, money laundering and other federal charges. Silk Road was used by more than 100,000 users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services. IRS-CI also worked significant tax investigations which are document in this annual report.

For example, Gerald A. Poynter was sentenced to 156 months in prison and ordered to pay $951,930 in restitution for filing fraudulent tax returns and attempting to receive nearly $100 million in fraudulent refunds from the IRS. Paul M. Daugerdas was sentenced to 180 months in prison, ordered to pay restitution to the IRS of $371,006,397 and ordered to forfeit $164,737,500 in proceeds for conspiring to defraud the IRS, to evade taxes, commit mail and wire fraud, and corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the internal revenue laws. The 20-year scheme generated over $7

billion of fraudulent tax losses and yielded approximately $95 million in fees to Daugerdas personally.

We also continued to make tremendous headway with some of the most significant identity theft cases to date. Mauricio Warner was sentenced to 240 months in prison and ordered to pay $5 million in restitution after he was convicted of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, filing false claims, and money laundering.

Ogiesoba Osula was sentenced to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $15.9 million in restitution

after he was convicted for various fraud schemes including aggravated identity theft. And Arthur

Grigorian, Ernest Soloian and Hovhannes Harutyunyan and 51 other defendants were indicted for theft of over 2000 identities and refund claims of over $20 million dollars.

The budget challenges facing our agency are nothing new. In the past five years, CI’s staff has been

reduced approximately 11 percent bringing staffing to 1970’s levels. This trend cannot continue. I’m proud of this agency and the reputation that we have earned as the best financial investigators in the world.

Looking ahead to Fiscal Year 2015, we will continue to build an agency that has the tools and expertise to enforce our nation’s tax laws. We will not lose sight of taking care of our people and will continue to push initiatives with that in mind to include developing leadership candidates, improving employee satisfaction and engagement, investing in technology, and improving communication and transparency.

Through strategic investments in people, increased communication, enhanced technology, and

collaboration with domestic and global law enforcement partners, CI will continue to be the worldwide leader in tax and financial investigations.

Criminal Investigation’s highest priority is to enforce our country’s tax laws and support tax administration.

The Fiscal Year 2014 investigative priorities were:

· Identity Theft Fraud

· Return Preparer Fraud & Questionable Refund Fraud

· International Tax Fraud

· Fraud Referral Program

· Political/Public Corruption

· Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)

· Bank Secrecy Act and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Review Teams

· Asset Forfeiture

· Voluntary Disclosure Program

· Counterterrorism and Sovereign Citizens

FY 2014 FY 2013 FY 2012

	FY 2014	FY 2013	FY 2012

Investigations Initiated	4297	5314	5125
Prosecution Recommendations	3478	4364	3701
Informations/Indictments	3272	3865	3390
Convictions	3110	3311	2634
Sentenced*	3268	2812	2466
Percent to Prison	79.60%	80.10%	81.50%

Conviction rate is the percentage of convictions compared to the total number of convictions,

acquittals, and dismissals. The conviction rate for FY 2014 is 93.4%, .03% more than the FY

2013 rate (93.1%).

*Sentence includes confinement to federal prison, halfway house, home detention, or some combination thereof.

The IRS is pushing for harsher sentences as it focuses on prosecuting criminal tax cases with more dollars at stake, according to data in the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division annual report.

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