Taxes
IRS Names New Chief of Criminal Investigations
Guy Ficco will oversee a worldwide staff of more than 3,200 Criminal Investigation (CI) employees, including 2,200 special agents who investigate crimes involving tax, money laundering, public corruption, human trafficking, drug trafficking, cybercrime and terrorism-financing.
Mar. 13, 2024
The Internal Revenue Service announced today that Guy Ficco will become the new IRS Criminal Investigation chief effective on April 1.
Ficco, the current Deputy Chief and a 29-year agency veteran, will succeed James Lee, who announced last month that he will retire at the end of March. In his new role, Ficco will oversee a worldwide staff of more than 3,200 Criminal Investigation (CI) employees, including 2,200 special agents who investigate crimes involving tax, money laundering, public corruption, human trafficking, drug trafficking, cybercrime and terrorism-financing.
“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 addition to serving as CI’s deputy chief, Ficco has served in leadership positions across the agency, ranging from supervisory special agent in the Washington, D.C. Field Office to executive director of Global Operations, Policy and Support at CI headquarters. He is also a certified fraud examiner.
“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.
CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, human and narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI plays an important and unique role in the federal law enforcement community. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a nearly 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.