DOJ's First National Tax Enforcement Surge Targets 76 Defendants in More Than $490 Million in Tax Fraud
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 14 that its National Fraud Enforcement Division, together with IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), has carried out a series of enforcement actions against tax fraud nationwide in the Department's first National Tax Enforcement Surge. Over roughly six weeks, from early September through October 14, the Division's Tax Section and 35 U.S. Attorneys' Offices across the country took prosecutorial action against 76 defendants whose charged and proven conduct was intended to cause estimated revenue losses to the United States of more than $490 million.
The Department said prosecutors brought 23 new criminal charges against 31 defendants during the surge, with the intended losses in those new cases alone exceeding approximately $350 million. The Tax Section and the U.S. Attorneys' Offices also participated in approximately 39 other enforcement actions — including trials, guilty pleas and sentencings — involving 45 additional defendants and intended losses of nearly $140 million.
"Every dollar stolen through tax fraud is a dollar taken from the American people. What we uncovered in this surge is just the tip of the iceberg. The Department of Justice is committed to expanding investigations and exposing schemes designed to evade accountability — because fraudsters will have nowhere to hide," said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who leads the National Fraud Enforcement Division, said that in six weeks the Division's Tax Section, 35 U.S. Attorneys' Offices and IRS-CI took action against more than 70 defendants who sought to steal more than $490 million from the Treasury. IRS Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said the surge "delivered results for taxpayers." Jarod Koopman, Chief Tax Compliance Officer and IRS-CI Chief, said the cases involved hundreds of millions of dollars in identified tax losses to the United States.
The Department detailed several major cases. In the District of Maryland, Martin Navarrete, sole owner of Navarrete Brothers Construction Inc., was charged in a case involving $2.8 million. The indictment alleges that Navarrete exercised total control over the company's finances, was responsible for withholding trust fund taxes from employees' wages, reporting employment taxes to the IRS on Form 941, and paying over those taxes — and that from September 2020 through December 2025 he willfully failed to truthfully account for and pay over the required trust fund taxes, and failed to file corporate and individual income tax returns for 2020 through 2024. Kelly Hayes, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, attended the announcement.
In the Northern District of Texas, four Texas residents were indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States and related crimes for marketing a fraudulent trust tax scheme. The indictment alleges the scheme was used to conceal more than $1.5 billion in income, resulting in an estimated tax loss to the IRS of more than $200 million; the defendants allegedly charged clients fees often exceeding $100,000, falsely promising they could transfer income into sham trusts to indefinitely defer taxes while continuing to enjoy and control their assets and income, and encouraged some clients to backdate trust documents and file amended returns to fraudulently claim refunds for prior years. In the Northern District of Georgia, three Mexican nationals were charged with using other individuals' Mexican identification documents to obtain Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), filing false returns in others' names to secure refunds, and cashing more than 16,000 U.S. Treasury refund checks worth $74 million through check-cashing businesses. In the Northern District of Ohio, Cleveland resident Sherita Booker was charged on September 30 with preparing false returns for hundreds of clients to generate large fraudulent refunds totaling approximately $11.8 million, including bogus COVID sick leave credits for nonexistent businesses and employees. In addition, Marquis Al Bey of Forney, Texas, pleaded guilty on September 17 in the District of Maryland to a tax refund fraud conspiracy that sought more than $35 million in refunds.
The Department said the National Fraud Enforcement Division was announced on April 7 of this year to investigate and prosecute fraud against the American public, and that its work supports the Presidential Task Force on Eliminating Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. The Department noted that an indictment is merely an allegation and that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于华盛顿特区的美国司法部总部大楼（罗伯特·F·肯尼迪大楼）立面。Tony Webster／Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 2.0
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