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The Internal Revenue Service's intelligence unit honed its reputation by providing the evidence to convict Public Enemy No. 1 Al Capone of tax evasion in 1931.

Long after the Chicago gangster went to prison and almost a century after the unit's founding, the little-known division — now called IRS Criminal Investigation, or IRS C.I. — is still going strong. Other high-profile defendants convicted of tax evasion in the years since Capone include Vice President Spiro Agnew, hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, baseball star Pete Rose and televangelist Jim Bakker.

IRS C.I. also targets tax cheats who are trying to conceal other criminal activity. Terrorists, mobsters, drug dealers, money launderers, identity thieves, corrupt public officials and other wrongdoers are on its radar.

"Just about any crime you can think of has a financial component to it," said Mike Brock, assistant special agent in charge of IRS CI's Las Vegas Field Office, which encompasses Utah and Nevada.

IRS CI's recently released annual report shows the scope of its work, with the division launching more than 4,000 investigations in fiscal 2014. IRS CI investigates suspected violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes and works to ensure that all taxpayers pay their fair share, said Brock, who is based in Salt Lake City.

As second in command, Brock represents John Collins, the special agent in charge of the IRS CI Las Vegas Field Office. Brock is the first CI assistant special agent in charge to sit in Utah; Collins said the arrangement will strengthen partnerships with other law enforcement agencies that work with the division on cases.

Brock said about 83 percent of taxes owed are paid on time, but some taxpayers underpay or don't pay at all. The law requires individuals and corporations to pay taxes on all income, whether it is legal or illegal.

IRS CI's enforcement activities help shrink the tax gap, which is the difference between the taxes owed and the taxes paid on time, Brock said. The IRS collects more than $2 trillion annually in taxes and estimates the gap for 2006, the latest figure available, was $450 billion.

"That's why our mission is critical," Brock said, noting the large amount of unpaid taxes.

IRS CI areas of focus in fiscal 2014 included international tax fraud; refund crimes; frivolous arguments by nonfilers; money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act violations; public corruption; virtual currency; and drug trafficking.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, IRS CI special agents also have been involved in tracking the illegal sources that finance terrorism.

Brock said a common perception is that IRS CI just conducts audits. While more than half the agents' time is focused on tax fraud — with most cases involving income from legal sources and violations such as claiming personal expenses as business expenses or claiming false deductions — they spend about 35 percent of their time investigating money laundering, 8 percent to 10 percent on drug trafficking and 2 percent on terrorism, he said.

IRS CI nationally initiated 4,297 cases in the fiscal year ending Oct. 30, according to its annual report, which was released in April. The conviction rate for the cases that were resolved in fiscal 2014 with a trial or a plea was 93.4 percent, the report says.

Of those cases, 42 started in Utah. In addition, 52 investigations, some of which took a few years because of their complexity, were completed in the Beehive State.

Richard Weber, IRS CI chief, said the conviction rate reflects the quality of the work by the division.

"We are the best financial investigators in the world," he said, "and I am extremely proud of our special agents and professional staff."

IRS CI special agents have accounting backgrounds that help them wade through paper and computerized records to investigate all kinds of complex financial crimes. As federal law enforcement officers, they carry weapons, make arrests, serve search warrants, conduct surveillance and work undercover.

"Our best tool is our ability to trace money," Brock said. "That's where we shine."

Following the money has become more complex in the electronic age, with fewer people writing checks and more using virtual currency, according to Special Agent Virginia DeCamp, the Utah-based cybercrime coordinator for the Las Vegas office.

"Cybercrimes are definitely on the uptick," DeCamp said, "and they're increasing daily."

Growing numbers of identity thefts have led to more tax fraud, she said, with thieves filing false returns.

IRS CI cases involve anywhere from relatively small amounts of money to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The fiscal 2014 IRS CI investigations included the largest criminal case ever filed, which was brought against Credit Suisse after a years-long probe. As part of a plea agreement, the Swiss corporation admitted that for decades it operated an illegal cross-border banking business that assisted thousands of U.S. clients in maintaining undeclared accounts and concealing offshore assets and income from the IRS, according to the annual report. Credit Suisse agreed to pay a total of $2.6 billion in fines and restitution.

Utah has had its share of major cases. IRS CI cites as a success Operation Weed Whacker, a collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement partners on the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. The probe targeted traffickers who allegedly grew marijuana in California from 2007 to 2012 and distributed more than 2,200 pounds of the drug, most of it in Utah. Six defendants have been charged in the case.

Other Utah prosecutions include:

Robert Lustyik, a former FBI special agent who was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for bribery and obstruction of justice for scheming to defraud the U.S. government of tens of millions dollars through military contracts in Afghanistan. Lustyik pleaded guilty to 11 felonies, including conspiracy and fraud.

Robert Holloway, who was found guilty by a jury of five fraud counts and one count of filing a false tax return in a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $15 million. Holloway was sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison.

Dick Reid Jenkins, a Heber City accountant and return preparer, who was sentenced to a 78-month prison term and ordered to pay $250,340 in restitution after being convicted of filing more than $9 million in false claims for income-tax refunds. He also was found guilty of presenting a false financial instrument to the Treasury Department for $300 million.

Portia Louder, of Highland, who reported to federal prison last month to begin serving an 84-month sentence after pleading guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy in connection with a mortgage-fraud scheme. She admitted giving inflated purchase prices of homes to financial institutions to obtain financing. She also was ordered to pay nearly $12 million in restitution.

• Jacquelin Boyd, a West Jordan woman who pleaded guilty to using the names and Social Security numbers of deceased people to file false tax returns. She received a sentence of a year and a day in prison, plus an order to pay $32,243 in restitution.

U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen said federal prosecutors value the skills that IRS CI agents bring to investigations.

"In addition to the tax crimes they investigate, they are also important partners in other complex white-collar cases," she said. "They also bring their financial-crime expertise to drug cases where money laundering is often a part of the criminal conduct."

Brock said financial investigations involve much more than sitting at a desk.

The job, he said, can include digging through trash for financial records, interviewing a CEO or going undercover to catch a dishonest tax return preparer.

Because of that variety, Brock said, "It's the most fun you get in accounting."

Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC —

History of the 'giant killers'

Serious complaints about alleged tax fraud led Daniel C. Roper, the first commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service), to create the Intelligence Unit in 1919. Six special agents were chosen from the ranks of postal inspectors and their numbers quickly grew to approximately 100.

The agents in the unit, now called IRS Criminal Investigation, became known as the "giant killers" because of their success in bringing down some of the biggest racketeers, including Al Capone.

The unit also tackled drug cases: Its first narcotics investigation, in 1920, targeted an opium trafficker in Hawaii and led to a tax-evasion charge.

IRS CI has about 2,500 special agents and 1,000 professional staffers assigned to 25 field offices in the United States and 11 foreign posts. Of those, 23 special agents and five support staffers are stationed in Utah.

Source: Internal Revenue Service and CI Digest