IRS crime-fighting arm takes on new tasks during Ukraine war
By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The crime-fighting arm of the IRS has identified more than $32 billion in funds this past fiscal year for eventual seizure. Jim Lee is chief of IRS Criminal Investigation, which tracks financial crimes and hunts down pricey properties of sanctioned Russian elites. He says $32 billion is three times what was identified in the previous year. And the amount of money seized in stolen cryptocurrency — more than $7 billion — is double what was seized in the previous year. The IRS division has added new responsibilities — like investigating sanctioned Russian oligarchs — to its priorities as Russia wages war on Ukraine.
