The US IRS Criminal Investigation Division reported USD 10.59 billion in financial crimes for FY2025, including USD 4.5 billion in tax fraud.
The US IRS Criminal Investigation released its Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report PDF on 11 December 2025, showcasing banner investigative results fueled by new partnerships and innovative financial investigative techniques.
The report details how IRS-CI’s approximately 3,000 employees worked to safeguard the global financial system and identify USD 10.59 billion in financial crimes during FY25, which took place from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
“IRS-CI’s team combines financial expertise with investigative precision to protect taxpayers and hold criminals accountable,” said IRS CEO Frank Bisignano. “They provide both a tangible return on investment, while providing for the safety and security of American citizens.”
Investigative Results: By the Numbers
IRS-CI’s investigative strategy produces quantifiable results. In FY25, IRS-CI investigators identified financial crimes totalling USD 10.59 billion, representing a 15.7% increase from FY24. Of the USD 10.59 billion, USD 4.5 billion resulted from tax fraud, marking an increase of 111.8% from FY24. The agency also saw a 25% increase in search warrants and a 14% increase in prosecution referrals to the Department of Justice during the same timeframe.
The number of cases with a cyber component also continued to grow in fiscal year 2025, with IRS-CI seizing 2.35 petabytes of digital data, a nearly 60% increase from the previous fiscal year. Additionally, IRS-CI special agents seized more than USD 800 million in assets and returned USD 100 million to crime victims in FY25.
Prioritising Time and Resources for Maximum Impact
IRS-CI leveraged resources to target the most urgent financial crime threats. In FY25, the agency dedicated nearly 64% of investigative time to tax crimes, often using data analytics to uncover tax fraud and payroll schemes. Eleven percent focused on narcotics-related crimes, resulting in 447 convictions during the fiscal year. The agency continued to target cyber criminals who victimise others through investment and fraud schemes. In FY25, cyber-related cases resulted in defendants being sentenced to an average of 63 months in prison for their crimes.
The IRS-CI team served integral roles in Operation Safe and Beautiful in Washington, D.C., and the Restoring Law and Order Task Force in Memphis, Tennessee, and assisted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with immigration enforcement efforts. Approximately 190 special agents were also detailed to Homeland Security Task Forces, where they used their specialised expertise in financial investigations to enforce federal law and protect national security.
Launch of New Initiatives
This year, IRS-CI announced CI-FIRST (Feedback in Response to Strategic Threats), a flagship public-private partnership to modernise how IRS-CI works with financial institutions. CI-FIRST addresses Bank Secrecy Act challenges by providing feedback to help banks understand what is most helpful to investigators. IRS-CI’s Optimising Financial Records Requests initiative, commonly known as OFRR, accelerates investigative timelines by streamlining and standardising how IRS-CI requests and how financial institutions respond to legal and subpoena requests.
Case Examples
In FY25, several defendants in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme were sentenced. The scheme – one of the largest pandemic-related fraud cases in U.S. history – involved the theft of more than USD 250 million in federal child-nutrition funds intended to feed low-income children. The leader of the scheme, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Both Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a married couple responsible for the 2016 Bitfinex hack and laundering nearly USD 71 million, were sentenced to federal prison. Lichtenstein received a five-year prison sentence for his role in the scheme, and Morgan was sentenced to 18 months.
Haiping Pan, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for laundering and attempting to launder USD 62 million for drug traffickers in Mexico.
The IRS-CI’s investigation into TD Bank revealed an anti-money laundering program rife with flaws that allowed more than USD 670 million of dirty money to pass through the TD Bank accounts from 2019 to 2023. The bank pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering conspiracy violations and agreed to pay a record-breaking USD 1.8 billion in penalties to resolve the Justice Department’s investigation.
