A federal grand jury indicted a former IRS agent in Denver for allegedly using his tax preparation business to launder money for clients who were selling drugs, including cocaine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said.
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Clinton Roosevelt Dale, 51, is charged with 12 counts of willfully preparing false tax returns for clients and laundering money through his business, Blue Bear Tax Solutions, federal officials said in a news release Tuesday.
Dale is accused of creating fake businesses, going as far as registering them through the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, and preparing false tax returns for clients who were dealing drugs so their income was reported as being from lawful businesses.
He worked at the IRS as a contact representative and revenue agent for more than 10 years before he resigned instead of being fired in 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Dale resigned after IRS officials found he had falsely claimed mileage reimbursements, misused his government-issued travel credit card and “engaged in lack of candor,” according to the indictment.
The indictment details Dale’s work for two clients, one of whom was an undercover agent with the IRS’s criminal investigation unit.
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The first client earned “virtually all of his income through the illegal sale of drugs, primarily cocaine,” from 2022 through April 2025, according to court records.
Dale registered a fake company with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, claiming that the client owned a construction business. On tax forms, he reported the second client – the undercover IRS agent – was an event planner, despite the undercover agent telling him they sold drugs, primarily cocaine.
“Dale designed this scheme for the dual purposes of enabling his drug dealer clients to fraudulently present proof of legitimate income to financial institutions in order to purchase real and personal property, including homes and luxury cars, and defrauding the IRS by filing false tax returns for the drug dealer clients which underreported the clients’ taxable income and tax due,” the indictment stated.
An attorney for Dale could not immediately be reached for comment, and his next court date was not available Thursday.
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