Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the United States federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating potential criminal violations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes, such as money laundering, currency transaction violations, tax-related identity theft fraud and terrorist financing that adversely affect tax administration.

On July 1, 1919, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Daniel C. Roper created the Intelligence Unit to investigate widespread allegations of tax fraud.

It attained national prominence in the 1930s for the conviction of public enemy number one, Al Capone, for income tax evasion, and its role in solving the Lindbergh kidnapping.

From these promising beginnings the Intelligence Unit expanded over the intervening decades, investigating tax evasion by ordinary citizens, prominent businesspersons, government officials, and notorious criminals.

The agency celebrated the occasion with planned events in distinct IRS-CI Field Offices nationwide including Washington D.C., San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

The Chief reports to the Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement and is responsible for the full range of planning, managing, directing, and executing the worldwide activities of CI.

[17] IRS-CI Special Agents are trained to execute arrest and search warrants and conduct authorized undercover operations, including technical surveillance.

These four programs are mutually supportive, and encourage utilization of all statutes within CI's jurisdiction, the grand jury process, and enforcement techniques to combat tax, money laundering and currency crime violations.

Its goal is to utilize the financial investigative expertise of its special agents to disrupt and dismantle major drug and money laundering organizations.

[22] IRS-CI's role in supporting narcotics related investigations was highlighted in the 1996 book, The Phoenix Solution: Getting Serious About Winning the Drug War, by Vincent T.

[24] IRS CI's support on investigations related to counterterrorism was highlighted in the 2013 book "Treasury's War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare," by Juan Zarate.

Special agents receive advanced training in Federal tax law and approved techniques developed within IRS-CI over decades of investigative activity.

For tax charges, special agents in training focus on three primary "methods of proof" to produce evidence leading to a conviction in Federal court: specific items, net worth, and expenditures.

[34] Like all other federal criminal investigators, special agents rely on objective, admissible evidence to develop allegations into successful prosecutions brought through the U.S. Department of Justice and the United States Attorney.

Special agents evaluate allegations of possible criminal acts received from the civil tax sections of the IRS as well as traditional law enforcement sources and direct participation and leadership in Federal task forces and multi-agency investigations.

An initial stage referral may be made by the Examination or Collection personnel of the Internal Revenue Service to the IRS Criminal Investigation function, using Form 2797.

For example, special agents played an instrumental role in the 2013 prosecution of Silk Road founder Ross William Ulbricht on charges of money laundering, computer hacking and conspiracy to traffic narcotics.

[44] Credit Suisse admitted that for several decades before 2009, it had operated an illegal cross-border banking business that helped U.S. clients conceal offshore assets from the IRS to avoid paying taxes.

In cooperation with the FBI's own investigations into FIFA corruption, multiple police agencies, and diplomats in 33 countries, IRS-CI helped to crack what has been described as "one of the most complicated international white-collar cases in recent memory.

Specifically, he made cash withdrawals of less than $10,000 to hide his efforts to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed person to compensate for and conceal prior "misconduct."

Jong Woo Son, a South Korean national and the administrator of the website, was arrested and an eventual seizure of the child pornography material was conducted.

It is widely argued that Ness is a Hollywood inspired myth and that his character on the film is based on Elmer Lincoln Irey, the first Chief of IRS-CI (then known as the Intelligence Unit), who is historically credited as the real mastermind behind Capone's demise.

[58] In 1999, Stephen Desberg (writer) and Bernard Vrancken (illustrator) created IR$, a Franco-Belgian comics series published by Le Lombard in French and Cinebook in English.

[59] The 2018–19 American police procedural crime drama television series In the Dark (The CW) features Theodore Bhat as Josh Wallace, an IRS-CI Special Agent investigating Guiding Hope for money laundering.

[61] The 2020 Amazon Prime Video Chilean drama web television series El Presidente shows IRS-CI Chief Richard Weber announcing the charges on the individuals involved on the 2015 FIFA corruption case.

[62] American novelist Diane Kelly wrote a series of humorous mystery novels (12 books, from 2011 through 2017) about a fictitious IRS-CI Special Agent by the name of Tara Holloway.