The IRS Criminal Investigation unit’s fiscal year 2025 report shows a dramatic uptick in detected financial crime, with tax fraud cases surging and investigators identifying $10.59 billion in criminal proceeds while seizing massive digital and financial assets.
The IRS Criminal Investigation unit released its fiscal year 2025 report covering Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, documenting enforcement activity by roughly 3,000 employees. The report highlights a steep rise in people committing tax fraud—an increase of 112 percent from fiscal year 2024—and a broad set of investigative outcomes across tax, narcotics, and cyber matters. It paints a picture of an agency leaning heavily on data and partnerships to hunt complex financial schemes.
“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.” That endorsement frames the agency’s message: enforcement yields recoveries, prosecutions, and deterrence that benefit taxpayers.
IRS-CI reports that investigators identified $10.59 billion in financial crimes in FY25, a 15.7 percent increase from FY24, and found $4.5 billion in tax fraud, a jump of 111.8 percent. The agency also recorded a 25 percent increase in search warrants and a 14 percent rise in prosecution referrals to the Department of Justice. Those metrics suggest a heavier emphasis on targeted, actionable investigations that lead to court filings and asset restraints.
“Our work plays an integral role in shutting down criminal networks that try to exploit government programs and launder funds,” said IRS-CI Chief Guy Ficco. “We continue to evolve – integrating new technological tools, expanding our global partnerships, and streamlining operations – to make it harder for criminals to hide.” The statement underscores a shift toward tech-enabled, internationally coordinated probes.
Cyber elements of cases swelled in FY25 as well, with IRS-CI seizing 2.35 petabytes of digital data, a near 60 percent increase from the prior year. Agents also seized more than $800 million in assets and returned roughly $100 million to victims during the fiscal year. Those figures highlight the growing digital footprint of modern financial crime and the scale of data the agency now handles to trace illicit flows.
Investigative priorities are clear: nearly 64 percent of investigative time went to tax crimes, often uncovered through data analytics and payroll-scheme detection. Narcotics-related work comprised about 11 percent of time and produced 447 convictions during FY25. Cyber-related cases continued to produce significant prison terms, with defendants receiving average sentences of 63 months for schemes tied to online investment and fraud operations.
IRS-CI also played roles in named operations and interagency task forces, including Operation Safe and Beautiful in Washington, D.C., and the Restoring Law and Order Task Force in Memphis, Tennessee. The unit supported immigration enforcement and detailed about 190 special agents to Homeland Security Task Forces, where financial investigative expertise bolstered national security and enforcement priorities.
This year the agency launched CI-FIRST, a public-private partnership aimed at modernizing how IRS-CI works with financial institutions and addressing Bank Secrecy Act challenges. CI-FIRST is designed to provide feedback to banks so they can produce more useful information for investigators, while the OFRR initiative streamlines how IRS-CI requests and receives financial records to speed investigations.
Major prosecutions highlighted in FY25 include sentences tied to pandemic-era fraud and large-scale money laundering. In the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme—one of the largest pandemic-related frauds—the theft exceeded $250 million in federal child-nutrition funds, and the scheme leader, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, received a 28-year prison term. Those outcomes reflect tougher penalties for large fraud rings targeting public programs.
High-profile cyber and crypto-related prosecutions also featured in the report. Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the couple tied to the 2016 Bitfinex hack and laundering nearly $71 million in stolen cryptocurrency, were sentenced to federal prison, with Lichtenstein receiving five years and Morgan receiving 18 months. The report further notes Haiping Pan, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 10 years for laundering and attempting to launder $62 million for drug traffickers in Mexico.
Financial institution compliance failures were not spared. IRS-CI’s probe into TD Bank found anti-money laundering program weaknesses that allowed more than $670 million in dirty money to flow through accounts between 2019 and 2023. The bank pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering conspiracy violations and agreed to pay $1.8 billion in penalties to resolve the investigation, marking a significant enforcement milestone.
