United States Attorney Paul E. Coggins announced today that Robert Elder Dais of Dallas, Texas, formerly a high-ranking executive (Assistant Regional Commissioner for Examination for the Internal Revenue Service’s Southwest Region) for the Internal Revenue Service in Dallas, was arrested today as a result of his indictment by a federal grand jury on fifteen felony counts alleging that he made false statements to the IRS and attempted to impede and obstruct the IRS in regard to his representation of clients before the IRS.

Dais, who had left the IRS in 1985, has practiced since then as a CPA in private practice representing clients in matters before the IRS. The indictment alleges that in 1998 the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy revoked Dais’s CPA license, as a result of which Dais became ineligible to represent clients in matters before the IRS. Counts one through fourteen of the indictment allege that in order to continue representing clients, Dais made numerous false statements to the IRS in an effort to deceive the IRS and allow him to continue representing clients before that agency.

Count fifteen of the indictment arose from an undercover investigation conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigative Division in 1997 and 1998. According to the indictment, Dais was approached by an undercover IRS agent who claimed to be a taxpayer who owed the IRS back taxes that the agent had not paid. The indictment alleges that Dais helped this undercover agent attempt to avoid his tax liability by counseling the agent to lie to the IRS about his assets and by Dais himself making false statements to IRS officials on behalf of Dais’s client, the undercover agent.

Counts one through fourteen of the indictment charge Dais with knowingly and willfully making false and fraudulent material statements and representations before the Internal Revenue Service during the years 1998 and 1999 in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. Count fifteen charges Dais with corruptly obstructing and impeding the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws of the United States in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7212(a). If convicted on all charges Dais faces a maximum sentence of 73 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $3,750,000.

United States Attorney Coggins praised the exemplary investigative work of the Special Agents of the Department of the Treasury’s office of Inspector General for Tax Administration and by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigative Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Phillip C. Umphres.

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