On July 23, 2021, in the Northern District of Texas, former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Revenue Officer Sonya Vivar was sentenced for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct or impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws. Vivar entered a plea of guilty on November 10, 2020.

According to the court documents, from in or around 1987 through 2019, Vivar's duties as a Revenue Officer included the collection of taxes from taxpayers. Beginning in or around January 2009, and continuing through in or around September 2017, Vivar was assigned, or at times requested that she 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 prepared that taxpayer's individual income tax returns. During this time, the taxpayer failed to pay the IRS delinquent employment taxes associated with their businesses.

In or around 2017, Vivar learned that IRS criminal investigators had opened an investigation into the taxpayer she developed a personal friendship with and other taxpayers. In response, Vivar contacted IRS employees with corrupt intent to impede and obstruct the investigation. During these conversations with IRS employees, Vivar failed to identify herself as a Revenue Officer. On or about September 18, 2017, during an interview with criminal investigators, Vivar stated her association with the taxpayer was only professional. Furthermore, she denied attending a meeting with, and on behalf of the taxpayer, which involved a U.S. Department of Labor employee pay withholding matter.

Vivar received 36 months imprisonment, one year of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $100 assessment fee.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: N.D. Tex., J., filed July 23, 2021; N.D. Tex., Plea Agr., filed November 10, 2020; and N.D. Tex., Information, October 15, 2020.