The Internal Revenue Service has announced that Guy Ficco will become the new IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) chief as of April 1, 2024.
Ficco will succeed Chief Jim Lee, who announced his retirement from federal service in February. Lee has led CI since October 2020.
Before the move, Ficco served as Deputy Chief. He was named to that post in 2022, having taken over from Jim Robnett, who retired after 36 years of IRS service. Before being appointed Deputy Chief, Ficco was the executive director of Global Operations Policy and Support at CI. Ficco first joined the IRS in July 1995.
“Guy has enjoyed a remarkable career as a CI special agent and leader who brings a wealth of experience to this job,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “He is highly respected in the IRS and has spent his career building strong relationships with law enforcement agencies around the country. Guy’s leadership is important during a pivotal period where the IRS is focusing on ensuring fairness in the tax system and renewing our enforcement work in key areas.”
In his new position as Chief, Ficco will oversee a worldwide staff of more than 3,200 Criminal Investigation employees, including 2,200 special agents who investigate crimes involving tax, money laundering, public corruption, human trafficking, drug trafficking, cybercrime, and terrorism-financing.
“I’m thrilled to become CI’s next chief and look forward to expanding the agency’s successes,” Ficco said. “Our CI team is uniquely positioned to combat not only tax crimes, but also the illicit movement of funds tied to drug and human trafficking, sanctions evasion and cybercrime. We are here to protect U.S. taxpayers from criminals who hold no regard for the victims or government coffers they drain.”
Ficco holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from Dominican University in New York. He is also a certified fraud examiner.
Ficco acknowledged the nod on LinkedIn, noting that he was “thankful for the confidence that the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner have shown in me to serve in this critical role.” He also expressed gratitude to Chief Lee, saying, “Seeing him up close over the last couple of years, has been very inspiring and I am very grateful for the mentorship that he, and so many others have provided me over my 29-year career. Jim’s legacy will be one that I honor as we all work together to ensure that CI moves forward. CI has many challenges ahead, but with challenges come great opportunities to mold this agency into the best version of CI that ever lived.”
IRS-CI, the sixth-largest law enforcement agency in the U.S., is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations like tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, and identity theft. While other federal agencies also have investigative jurisdiction for money laundering and some bank secrecy act violations, the IRS is the only federal agency that can investigate potential criminal violations of the tax code.
The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
You can find IRS CI on X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn.
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