“IRS-CI agents are the only
federal law enforcement officers with the authority to investigate criminal
violations of the U.S. tax code. Their work reinforces the backbone of our
voluntary compliance tax system -- a system that funds services and benefits for
our nation, including defense, infrastructure and education,” said IRS
Commissioner Chuck Rettig.
In fiscal year 2021, IRS-CI
built upon its existing network of U.S. field offices and international
attachés to combat financial crimes across the globe. The agency’s alliance
with the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) helped
strengthen public-private partnerships with financial institutions and the
Fin-Tech industry to deter and identify criminal activity. Additionally, IRS-CI
established its first cyber attaché in The Hague, Netherlands, to proactively
support cyber investigative needs in coordination with Europol.
“IRS-CI continues to lead tax
and financial investigations here in the U.S. and across the globe,” said
IRS-CI Chief Jim Lee. “In fiscal year 2021, as we faced the second year of a
global pandemic, our team of agents continued to overcome personal and
professional challenges to target criminals who exploited the U.S. tax and
financial systems for personal gain.”
While IRS-CI Agents Spent Most Of Their Investigative
Man-Hours, About 72%, Investigating Tax-related Crimes
Like Tax Evasion And Tax Fraud During Fiscal Year 2021, They Also Made Significant Contributions To Money Laundering, Narcotics Trafficking, Public Corruption, Terrorism
And COVID-19 Fraud Investigations.
Case examples include:
In April 2021, a dual
Russian-Swedish national was arrested in Los Angeles on criminal charges
related to his alleged operation of the longest-running bitcoin money
laundering service on the darknet dubbed Bitcoin Fog. The bulk of
cryptocurrency laundered through Bitcoin Fog came from darknet marketplaces and
was tied to illegal narcotics, computer fraud and identity theft. This case
marked the second U.S. prosecution of a cryptocurrency mixing service; both
were investigated by IRS-CI.
The ringleader of a
transnational criminal organization, with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, operating
in California and along the East Coast was sentenced to 33 years in prison in
July 2021 for narcotics trafficking-related charges. The sentencing followed a
multiagency operation dubbed Operation Cookout that netted 65 kilograms of
illegal drugs, 24 firearms, more than $700,000 in cash and guilty pleas from 45
defendants.
Numerous IRS-CI investigations
resulted in individuals being sentenced for fraudulently obtaining small
business relief loans under the CARES Act. One of those cases involved a Texas
businessman who was sentenced in September 2021 to 31 months confinement and 36
months of supervised release after he created a scheme to fraudulently obtain
more than $3.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans for personal use.
The report includes additional
case examples for each U.S. field office, an overview of IRS-CI’s international
footprint, details about the specialized services provided by IRS-CI and
investigative statistics, broken down by discipline, for fiscal year 2021.
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