The 10 most 'amazing' frauds of 2024

March 4, 2025 10:00 AM

From Bitcoin to bogus easements, from ID theft to international skullduggery: Authorities have unveiled the top 10 IRS Criminal Investigation cases of 2024.

"Each year, I'm amazed with the variety of cases that make our top 10 list," added IRS-CI chief Guy Ficco.

Representing the most high-profile and impactful cases of last year, these defendants scammed millions, duped investors into getting rich quick and tried to funnel money to terrorist organizations — and above all to themselves.

The top crooks:

10. Bank robbery

Old-fashioned bank robbery (black and white)

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Former attorney Robert Kowalski was sentenced in August to 25 years in prison for embezzlement and fraud tied to the failure of Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Chicago. Washington Federal shuttered in 2017 after going insolvent with at least $66 million in nonperforming loans; most of that money had gone to Kowalski and two real estate developers.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. tried to collect from Kowalski, but he filed a fraudulent bankruptcy that included fake corporate and personal returns for several years. He also failed to file any kind of tax return for two years.

He was also ordered to pay $7.2 million in restitution to the FDIC and $424,047 to the IRS.

9. The Coin op

George Town in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

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Former law firm partner Mark Scott was sentenced last January to 10 years for laundering some $400 million from the international scam "OneCoin."

Scott established a series of fake private equity investment funds in the British Virgin Islands to which he transferred money from the scheme, then layered it through bank accounts throughout the Cayman Islands and Ireland. He was paid more than $50 million for his money laundering, which he used to purchase luxury watches, vehicles and homes in New England.

8. Here comes the bribe

SUSAN GOLDMAN/Bloomberg News

Former Los Angeles politician José Luis Huizar was sentenced last January to 13 years for using his position as a former L.A. city councilmember to enrich himself and his associates and evade taxes.

For years, Huizar leveraged his position as chair of the city's Planning and Land Use Management Committee to lead a bribery scheme that sought nearly $2 million from real estate developers including cash, casino chips, prostitution services, political contributions, flights on private jets and commercial airlines, stays at luxury hotels and casinos, expensive meals, and tickets to concerts and sporting events, among other goodies.

He was also ordered to pay $443,905 in restitution to the City of Los Angeles and $38,792 to the IRS.

7. Homeland insecurity

Devon Yu/Feng Yu - Fotolia

Jason Brown of the Chicago area was sentenced in October to 18 years for trafficking fentanyl and attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

In 2019, Brown provided $500 in cash to an individual with the understanding that the money would be wired to a terrorist in Syria. Unknown to Brown, the individual was working with law enforcement, and the "ISIS fighter" was an undercover agent. That same year, Brown trafficked more than 100 grams of fentanyl, at least one kilogram of methamphetamine and more than 54 kilograms of marijuana from California to the Chicago suburbs and illegally possessed several loaded handguns.

6. Numbers game

Abraham Yusuff, who led a scheme to defraud the IRS of more than $110 million, was sentenced in September to 14 years in prison.

From 2018 to 2021, he led a stolen-ID refund fraud and, to avoid IRS detection, recruited co-conspirators to provide addresses to him to receive mail, including IRS correspondence such as ID verification letters.

Yusuff and others obtained stolen CAF numbers for their victims and used the numbers to persuade the IRS they were legitimate representatives. The defendants then directed the IRS to change the addresses on file for the taxpayers and to send their tax information, including account transcripts and wage records, to addresses and emails the defendants controlled. Seven conspirators have also been sentenced to prison.

5. Game over

Amit Patel, employee of a National Football League team, was sentenced in March to 78 months in prison for wire fraud and engaging in an illegal monetary transaction.

From September 2019 until February 2023, Patel used his role as administrator for the Jacksonville Jaguars' virtual credit card program to make hundreds of purchases and transactions with no legitimate business purpose. He created accounting files that contained false and fraudulent entries and emailed them to the Jaguars' accounting department to avoid detection.

He used money from this scheme to bet with gambling websites, buy a Florida condo, pay for travel for himself and friends, acquire new vehicles, buy digital assets and more. Patel reported none of this income on his tax returns.

Patel was also ordered to forfeit $22.2 million.

4. Gone dark

Picasa/3dsculptor - Fotolia

Roman Sterlingov, a dual Russian-Swedish national, was sentenced in November to 12 years and six months for his role operating the longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet.

Bitcoin Fog gained notoriety as a go-to money laundering service for criminals seeking to hide their proceeds from law enforcement. Most crypto infused into Bitcoin Fog came from darknet marketplaces and was tied to illegal narcotics, computer crimes, ID theft and child sexual abuse material. Bitcoin Fog processed transactions involving more than 1.2 million bitcoin valued at some $400 million.

Sterlingov was also ordered to pay a judgement of more than $395 million, forfeit $1.76 million in assets and forfeit his interest in the Bitcoin Fog wallet, equivalent to approximately 1,345 bitcoin.

3. Easy path to long jail time

CPA Jack Fisher and attorney James Sinnott and their co-conspirators sold more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent deductions as part of a syndicated conservation easement scheme, leading to a tax loss to the IRS of more than $450 million.

Fisher was a pioneer in the conservation easement industry and one of its biggest promoters; he and Sinnott each made millions of dollars promoting and selling their tax shelters to wealthy taxpayers. The two also used fraudulent deductions from their shelters on their personal income tax returns.

Fisher and Sinnott were each sentenced last January to more than 20 years in prison.

2. Tricks of the trade

Changpeng Zhao

Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, was sentenced in June to four months in prison.

Binance Holdings Limited, which operates Binance.com, pleaded guilty in 2023 and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion financial penalty to resolve an investigation into violations related to the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and to failure to register as a money transmitting business.

Between August 2017 and October 2022, Binance executed more than 1.67 million virtual currency trades on its platform between U.S. citizens, users in sanctioned jurisdictions and blocked users.

1. Command and control

Janet Yamanaka Mello, a civilian financial program manager for the U.S. Army's Installation Management Command, was sentenced last July to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $140 million in restitution for stealing nearly $109 million from youth programs and failing to pay more than $32 million in taxes.

At Fort Sam Houston, Mello designed the funding policy used to process grant applications. She created a fake business and used it to apply for millions of dollars from the 4-H Military Partnership Grant program. Once Mello received a grant check, she deposited it into her bank account and then spent it on clothing, jewelry, vehicles and real estate.