IRS cracks down on money crimes

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - You don't hear much about them, but the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division has been playing a vital role in numerous criminal investigations on the island.  The agency is key to uncovering tax crimes, tax evasion, money laundering schemes and more.  In the coming months, the IRS will be doing more investigations.

"Money laundering investigations cover a gamut of political corruption, narcotics, terrorism investigations. If someone is making money illegally, the IRS is going to be involved," stated Kenneth Hines, special agent in charge at the Seattle field office of the Department of the Treasury for the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division.  Hines was on Guam this past week to visit the two agents who are assigned to the territory, federal agencies and the Department of Revenue and Taxation. In the coming months, Hines says the IRS will be working with Rev & Tax to get tax compliance issues in line with each other to work joint investigations.

"One of the main things we're going to do here is work with the Department of Revenue & Taxation in getting the word out about what types of schemes to look out for. The IRS annually publishes what we call our 'dirty dozen', which is a list of tax crimes that we see consistently from year to year targeting people," he explained. Those include tax refund schemes, structuring, and false claims against the government.

Although tax season isn't until the start of the New Year, Hines warns that criminals will start early looking to promise big returns for those who buy into their scams. "If they're asking you to claim dependents that aren't yours, someone else's children on your tax return, that's a red flag they're not really doing the right thing. They're leading you down the path of committing a felony and it could cost you not only the money you get in the refund you have to pay back with interest and penalties but you can also be prosecuted criminally for that as well," he said.

The IRS also investigates money laundering, a practice that is used by criminals and organizations. "They're trying to take the money that's derived from criminal activity and make it look legitimate it's hiding the source of it, hiding the ownership of it and basically trying to get it into the bank system without it being detected by law enforcement," he said.

The IRS is also a critical component to asset forfeiture which is the seizure of illegal gotten gains.  The financial gains are put back into law enforcement's efforts in the community.

Hines says that money fuels illegal business, pays their ways of protection and other criminal activity -all which harms society, noting, "If you see someone disposing of a lot of cash or asking you to hide cash, trying to put assets in other people's names and not their own, that's kind of a red flag."

Hines even puts businesses on notice, especially money service establishments. "Protect your business because if you're taking drug proceeds or other proceeds from illegal activity, you're putting your business at risk.  You may not be committing the crime they're doing, but by taking their money and making it appear legitimate you are running the risk of one being involved in the money laundering or two, jeopardizing your business," he said.