On October 15, 2020, in the Northern District of Texas, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Revenue Officer Sonya Vivar was charged with corruptly endeavoring to obstruct or impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws.

According to the court documents, between approximately January 2009 through September 2017, Vivar was assigned and at times requested to be assigned to employment tax collection cases that involved various individual taxpayers and businesses. Vivar developed a personal friendship with one taxpayer who owned several businesses, and began preparing that taxpayer's individual income tax returns. During this time, the taxpayer failed to pay the IRS delinquent employment taxes associated with their businesses. Around 2017, Vivar learned that IRS criminal investigators had opened an investigation of the taxpayer. In response, Vivar contacted IRS employees in an effort to impede tax collection actions and the criminal investigation. During these conversations with IRS employees, Vivar failed to identify herself as a revenue officer.

If convicted, Vivar could receive a maximum penalty of three years' imprisonment for attempting to interfere with the administration of the Internal Revenue laws.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available document: N.D. Tex., Information, October 15, 2020.