Prosecutions for January 2025
Referring Agency: Internal Revenue Service
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during January 2025 the government reported 42 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Internal Revenue Service. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 2.4 percent over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (see Table 1).
When monthly 2025 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was only slightly up (1.7%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 30.2 percent from levels reported in 2020.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The decrease from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in January 2025 was for "Fraud-Tax", accounting for 54.8 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (19%), "Fraud-Federal Program" (9.5%), "Fraud-Other" (4.8%), "Fraud-Consumer" (2.4%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.4%), "Fraud-Other Investment" (2.4%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.4%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (2.4%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In January 2025, no defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In January 2025, 42 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during January there were an additional 1 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during January.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during January 2025 referred by the Internal Revenue Service.
Lead Charge Count Rank 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 8 1 More 26 USC 7201 - Attempt to evade or defeat tax 7 2 More 26 USC 7202 - Willful failure to collect or pay over tax 7 2 More 26 USC 7206 - Fraud and False statements 5 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 4 5 More 18 USC 287 - False, fictitious or fraudulent claims 1 6 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 1 6 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 1 6 More 18 USC 3146 - Penalty for failure to appear 1 6 More Table 2. Top Charges Filed
"Fraud by wire, radio, or television" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343) was the most frequent recorded lead charge.
Ranked 2nd in frequency were the lead charges "Attempt to evade or defeat tax" under Title 26 U.S.C Section 7201 and "Willful failure to collect or pay over tax" under Title 26 U.S.C Section 7202.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In January 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 15.4 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions of this type last month are shown in Table 3.
The Southern District of Florida (Miami) and Western District of Missouri (Kansas City) — with 4 prosecutions — were the most active during January 2025.
District of Colorado, District of New Jersey and Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland) are now ranking 3rd.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during January 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Becerra, Jacqueline Fla, S 2 1 More Suddaby, Glenn T. N. Y., N 2 1 More Polster, Dan A. Ohio, N 2 1 More Fitzgerald, Michael Walter Cal, C 1 4 More Thurston, Jennifer L. Cal, E 1 4 More Kollar-Kotelly, Colleen D. C. 1 4 More Mendoza, Carlos Eduardo Fla, M 1 4 More Berger, Wendy Williams Fla, M 1 4 More Bloom, Beth Francine Fla, S 1 4 More Rosenberg, Robin Lee Fla, S 1 4 More Broomes, John Wesley Kansas 1 4 More Walker, Lance Edward Maine 1 4 More Sachs, Howard Frederic Mo, W 1 4 More Kays, David Gregory Mo, W 1 4 More Phillips, Mary Elizabeth Mo, W 1 4 More Ketchmark, Roseann Ambrosia Mo, W 1 4 More Molloy, Donald W. Montana 1 4 More Bumb, Renee Marie N. J. 1 4 More Zouhary, Jack Ohio, N 1 4 More Mosman, Michael W. Oregon 1 4 More Immergut, Karin Johanna Oregon 1 4 More Surrick, R[ichard] Barclay Penn, E 1 4 More Rodriguez, Xavier Texas, W 1 4 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 17 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings , while the remaining 6 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 23 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judges Jacqueline Becerra in the Southern District of Florida (Miami), Glenn T. Suddaby in the Northern District of New York (Syracuse) and Dan A. Polster in the Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland) ranked 1st with 2 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: March 12, 2025
