The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering,terrorist financing,and other financial crimes.
In the United States,a district attorney (DA),county attorney,county prosecutor,state's attorney,prosecuting attorney,commonwealth's attorney,state attorney or solicitor is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a local government area,typically a county or a group of counties. The exact name and scope of the office varies by state. Generally,the prosecutor represents the people of the jurisdiction and in many states their authority stems from the state constitution. Unlike similar roles in other common law judicial systems,these are elected.
Elmer Lincoln Irey was a Postal Inspector,United States Treasury Department official and the first Chief of the Internal Revenue Service Intelligence Unit,that would later become Internal Revenue Service,Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). Irey led the investigative unit during the federal tax evasion prosecution of Chicago mobster Al Capone.
Internal Revenue Service,Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the United States federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating potential criminal violations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes,such as money laundering,currency violations,tax-related identity theft fraud and terrorist financing that adversely affect tax administration. While other federal agencies also have investigative jurisdiction for money laundering and some Bank Secrecy Act violations,IRS-CI is the only federal agency that can investigate potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code,in a manner intended to foster confidence in the tax system and deter violations of tax law. Criminal Investigation is a division of the Internal Revenue Service,which in turn is a bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury.
The United States Department of Justice Tax Division is responsible for the prosecution of both civil and criminal cases arising under the Internal Revenue Code and other tax laws of the United States. The Division began operation in 1934,under United States Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings,who charged it with primary responsibility for supervising all federal litigation involving internal revenue.
John Henry Durham is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut from 2018 to 2021. By April 2019,the Trump administration assigned him to investigate the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections,and in October 2020 he was appointed special counsel for the Department of Justice on that matter.
A tax protester is someone who refuses to pay a tax claiming that the tax laws are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. Tax protesters are different from tax resisters,who refuse to pay taxes as a protest against a government or its policies,or a moral opposition to taxation in general,not out of a belief that the tax law itself is invalid. The United States has a large and organized culture of people who espouse such theories. Tax protesters also exist in other countries.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government,which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code,the main body of the federal statutory tax law. It is an agency of the Department of the Treasury and led by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue,who is appointed to a five-year term by the President of the United States. The duties of the IRS include providing tax assistance to taxpayers;pursuing and resolving instances of erroneous or fraudulent tax filings;and overseeing various benefits programs,including the Affordable Care Act.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is an office in the United States Federal government. It was established in January 1999 in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA 98) to provide independent oversight of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) activities. As mandated by RRA 98,TIGTA assumed most of the responsibilities of the IRS' former Inspection Service.
Operation Broken Trust,the largest investment fraud sweep by the Federal government of the United States,was conducted between August 16 and December 1,2010. The stated purpose of the operation was to "root out and expose" investment scams within the U.S. and to educate the public. It was announced that the operation involved 343 criminal cases with damages of $8.3 billion and 189 civil cases with damages of $2.1 billion;more than 120,000 victims were affected.
Lois Gail Lerner is an American attorney and former United States federal civil service employee. Lerner became director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2005,and subsequently became the central figure in the 2013 IRS targeting controversy in the targeting of politically-aligned groups,either denying them tax-exempt status outright or delaying that status until they could no longer take effective part in the 2012 election. On May 10,2013,in a conference call with reporters,Lerner apologized that Tea Party groups and other groups had been targeted for audits of their applications for tax-exemption. Both conservative and liberal groups were scrutinized. Only three groups —all branches of the Democratic group Emerge America —had tax exemptions revoked. Lerner resigned over the controversy. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation,completed in 2015,found "substantial evidence of mismanagement,poor judgment and institutional inertia" but "found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political,discriminatory,corrupt,or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution."
Charles Paul Rettig is an American attorney who served as the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue,the head of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On September 12,2018,the United States Senate confirmed Rettig's nomination to be Commissioner for the term expiring November 12,2022. Rettig was sworn in on October 1,2018.
Michael J. Desmond is an American tax attorney and former federal government official. He previously served as the 48th Chief Counsel of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Assistant General Counsel in the Department of the Treasury. He was confirmed by the Senate on February 27,2019 and began serving as Chief Counsel on March 4,2019. Shortly before the Inauguration of Joe Biden,Desmond resigned from his position as Chief Counsel effective January 20,2021,succeeded by Acting Chief Counsel William M. Paul.
The 2017-2019 Special Counsel investigation involved multiple legal teams,specifically the attorneys,supervised by Special Counsel Robert Mueller,taking part in the investigation;the team representing President Trump in his personal capacity;and the team representing the White House as an institution separate from the President.
This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections,both before and after July 2016,until November 8,2016,the transition,the first and second halves of 2017,the first and second halves of 2018,and followed by the second half of 2019,2020,and 2021.
Donald Trump,President of the United States from January 2017 to January 2021,controversially refused to release his tax returns after being elected president,although he promised to do so during his campaign. In 2021,the Manhattan District Attorney (DA) obtained several years of Trump's tax information,and in late 2022,the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee obtained and released six years of his returns.
The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) is a global joint operational group,formed in mid-2018 to combat transnational tax crime. Composed of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO),the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA),the Fiscale Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst (FIOD),His Majesty's Revenue &Customs (HMRC),and Internal Revenue Service,Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI),the J5 members work together to gather information,share intelligence,conduct operations and build the capacity of tax crime enforcement officials.
The Chief,Internal Revenue Service,Criminal Investigation,abbreviated as Chief,IRS-CI or Chief,CI or simply Chief,is the head and chief executive of Internal Revenue Service,Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI),the United States' federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating potential criminal violations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes. Criminal Investigation is a division of the Internal Revenue Service,which in turn is a bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury. The Chief is the highest ranking executive within IRS-CI and reports to the Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement of the Internal Revenue Service.
Richard Pilger is an American attorney and retired government official who served as the Director of the Election Crimes Branch at the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice from March 2010 to November 2020,returning to the civil service position in February 2021 through his retirement in July 2022. He is currently an unaffiliated private attorney.
John Luman Smith is an American attorney who has served in the United States Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney,acting U.S. attorney,and head of the department's Public Integrity Section. He was also the chief prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers,an international tribunal at The Hague tasked with investigating and prosecuting war crimes in the Kosovo War.
