Here’s a helpful hint to anyone who commits a serious tax crime: If IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) comes after you, there’s a 91.2% chance that you will be heading to ClubFed or otherwise be convicted. As poker players say, ‘Those are betting odds.’ That’s just one of the highlights of IRS CI’s annual report.
There are only 2,009 special agents (down from 2,019 in 2018). There were 1,500 investigations started, with 942 prosecutions recommended, and 848 resulting in sentencing. As you would expect, most of the investigations relate to tax (75.1%), while 11.3% are narcotics-related, and 11.9% are non-tax. (A few investigations, 1.4%, are not categorized.)
The sources of investigations run the gamut: 28% are from the US Attorney’s Office (aka the Department of Justice), 26% from other federal agencies, 15% are internally developed (within CI), and 12% come from Bank Secrecy Act information. Other sources include IRS civil (from IRS Revenue Agents and others involved in audits), state and local government, and the general public.
The annual report highlights several cases, including the indictment out of Las Vegas of several individuals who allegedly filed $1.1 billion in false claims for refundable renewable fuel tax credits. They also allegedly laundered $3.1 billion.
If you’re at all interested in CI, and what they work on, the report makes for interesting reading.