On October 23, 2018, in the Eastern District of California, former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation (CI) Special Agent Alena Aleykina was sentenced for filing false tax returns, theft of Government funds, and obstruction of justice. A jury previously found Aleykina guilty of the offenses.
According to the court documents, Aleykina, a resident of Sacramento, California, was employed as an IRS-CI special agent from approximately 2006 to 2014. Aleykina was also a certified public accountant.
Between 2010 and 2012, Aleykina prepared six false tax returns. Three of the returns were Aleykina's own individual income tax returns, and three were tax returns for trusts that she established. Each was signed under penalty of perjury and contained false statements.
On Aleykina's individual tax returns, she falsely claimed head-of-household filing status. She claimed three dependents, tuition and fees deductions, and losses of up to $25,000 for trusts that she had established. She had knowledge that all of these claims were false and was aware that she was not entitled to make these claims. Aleykina also stole public money and converted it to her own use, despite knowing that she was not eligible for such money, by causing the IRS to issue IRS Tuition Assistance Reimbursement payments to her. In addition, the three trust tax returns prepared by Aleykina contained false statements, including but not limited to the amounts of rents received, deductions for negative income distributions, and claims of negative net income, all of which were declared as losses on two of her corresponding individual tax returns. The total loss to the Government was more than $60,000.
Additionally, Aleykina, knowingly and with the intent to obstruct the investigation, destroyed, altered, concealed, or falsified at least one record that was stored on a Government-issued computer and Government servers. Specifically, when special agents approached Aleykina to retrieve her Government laptop, she lied to them about its location and then began deleting files from it after they left.
Aleykina was sentenced to a total of 51 months' imprisonment followed by 36 months of supervised release. In addition, Aleykina was ordered to pay a special assessment fee of $800 and restitution in the amount of $4,000.
Source: The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: E.D. Cal. Superseding Indict. filed Oct. 20, 2016; E.D. Cal. Verdict Form filed June 15, 2018; E.D. Cal. Crim. Docket as of June 29, 2018; Department of Justice, Northern District of California, Press Release issued June 18, 2018; and E.D. Cal. Min. Entry filed. Oct. 23, 2018.