The IRS Criminal Investigation Unit annually releases its top 10 cases from the prior year. Here are some highlights from the list of 2024 cases.1
- The longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet has come to an end. A dual Russian-Swedish national was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for running Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency mixer that allowed criminals to hide transactions involving over 1.2 million bitcoin, valued at approximately $400 million at the time the transactions occurred.
- A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee was sentenced to six years and six months in prison and ordered to forfeit $22 million in funds he embezzled from the team. He used the team’s virtual credit card program to make hundreds of purchases and transactions with no legitimate business purpose, and then created accounting files that contained numerous false and fraudulent entries and emailed them to the Jaguars’ accounting department. He used the funds to buy a condo and to purchase cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens, electronics, sports memorabilia, a country club membership, spa treatments, concert and sporting event tickets, home furnishings, and luxury wrist watches.
- A former law firm partner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering in connection with the OneCoin international scheme. OneCoin is a multilevel marketing cryptocurrency scheme that originated in Bulgaria and has taken in more than $4 billion. The law firm partner had previously been convicted of laundering OneCoin proceeds for its founder Ruja Ignatova, the “Crypto Queen,” who is a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
