Prosecutions for May 2025
Referring Agency: Internal Revenue Service
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during May 2025 the government reported 59 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 down 20.3 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 down (-3.8%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 12.4 percent from levels reported in 2020.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The increase 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 May 2025 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 47.5 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Fraud-Tax" (33.9%), "Fraud-Other" (8.5%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In May 2025, 2 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.
In the magistrate courts in May the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 26 U.S.C Section 7201 involving "Attempt to evade or defeat tax". This was the lead charge for 50 percent of all magistrate filings in May.
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In May 2025, 57 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during May 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 May.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during May 2025 referred by the Internal Revenue Service.
Lead Charge Count Rank 26 USC 7206 - Fraud and False statements 10 1 More 26 USC 7201 - Attempt to evade or defeat tax 7 2 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 5 3 More 18 USC 1028 - Fraud and related activity - id documents 4 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 2 5 More 18 USC 1957 - Monetary transactions w/property from unlawful act 1 6 More 26 USC 7212 - Attempts to interfere with admin of tax laws 1 6 More Table 2. Top Charges Filed
"Fraud and False statements" (Title 26 U.S.C Section 7206) was the most frequent recorded lead charge.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Attempt to evade or defeat tax" under Title 26 U.S.C Section 7201.
Ranked 3rd was "Fraud by wire, radio, or television" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In May 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 20.8 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 Western District of Missouri (Kansas City) — with 8 prosecutions — was the most active during May 2025.
The District of Minnesota and District of South Carolina ranked 2nd.
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 May 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Thurston, Jennifer L. Cal, E 2 1 More Altman, Roy Kalman Fla, S 1 2 More Hall, James Randal Ga, S 1 2 More Weisman, M. David Ill, N 1 2 More Watters, Susan Pamela Montana 1 2 More Martini, William J. N. J. 1 2 More Ross, Allyne R. N. Y., E 1 2 More Zouhary, Jack Ohio, N 1 2 More Graham, James L. Ohio, S 1 2 More McShane, Michael Jerome Oregon 1 2 More Immergut, Karin Johanna Oregon 1 2 More Rosenthal, Lee Hyman Texas, S 1 2 More Rodriguez, Xavier Texas, W 1 2 More Conley, William Martin Wisc, W 1 2 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 5 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings , while the remaining 9 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 14 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Jennifer L. Thurston in the Eastern District of California (Sacramento) ranked 1st with 2 defendants in cases.
Judges Roy Kalman Altman in the Southern District of Florida (Miami), James Randal Hall in the Southern District of Georgia (Savannah), M. David Weisman in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago), Susan Pamela Watters in the District of Montana, William J. Martini in the District of New Jersey, Allyne R. Ross in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), Jack Zouhary in the Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland), James L. Graham in the Southern District of Ohio (Cincinnati), Michael Jerome McShane ranked 2nd with 1 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: July 16, 2025
