IRS Agent Charged with Accepting a Bribe

June 4, 2010 - An agent from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has been charged in federal court with soliciting and receiving payment toward a $9,700 bribe from two business owners in exchange for lowering the amount of taxes their business owed the IRS. Roger Anthony Coombs, age 40, of Circle Pines, was charged with one count of corruptly soliciting and agreeing to receive and accept anything of value personally in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act. The criminal complaint was unsealed upon Coombs’s initial appearance earlier today in federal court.

The complaint alleges that on May 8, 2010, Coombs met the two business owners regarding an IRS audit of their business and said the business owed the IRS approximately $60,000. Coombs allegedly said he could make the situation “manageable,” and added he would arrange for the IRS to accept $11,000 instead of $60,000 if the business owners paid Coombs $9,700. Coombs, who began working with the IRS in June of 2009, would conduct audits of individuals and entities to determine whether those individuals or entities had correctly reported their tax liability to the IRS. On February 4, 2010, one of the two business owners received a letter from Coombs regarding the audit. On May 6, 2010, Coombs met with the business owners and the office of their accountant. At that meeting and without the accountant present, Coombs allegedly told the business owners they should meet somewhere away from the accountant’s office and without the accountant to further discuss the matter.

Because of his concerns about Coombs’s alleged proposal, one of the business owners secretly recorded their May 8 meeting. Coombs allegedly said he would have to lie about certain things in their audit. They agreed to another meeting where Coombs would receive a partial payment of the bribe. Following the May 8 meeting, the business owners reported Coombs’s activity to law enforcement.

Coombs and one of the business owners met on May 19, 2010, in Brooklyn Park. Agents observed the business owner providing Coombs with $3,000. Coombs said he had already taken aranged for another meeting on June 2, 2010, to exchange a second payment toward the full bribe amount. Coombs was arrested yesterday without incident.

If convicted, Coombs faces a potential maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. All sentences are determined by a federal district court judge. This is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General-Tax Administration. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tracy Perzel.