Former IRS Employee Pleads Guilty To Unauthorized Possession Of Official Federal Agency Identification Card

NEWARK, N.J. – A former IRS attorney today admitted possessing a federal agency identification card without authorization and using it during multiple traffic stops, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Deon Owensby, 42, of Trenton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre in Newark federal court to an information charging him with knowingly possessing an official identification card of a federal agency without authorization.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Owensby obtained an official IRS identification card known as an IRS Pocket Commission during his employment as an attorney with the IRS. The IRS Pocket Commission, which IRS employees use to identify themselves to the public when performing official duties, was to be returned to the IRS upon the end of his employment in April 2015.

However, from August 2015 to April 2017, Owensby continued to possess the IRS Pocket Commission and displayed it during multiple law enforcement stops of his vehicle in Essex and Middlesex Counties.

The count of possessing an official identification card of a federal agency without authorization is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Owensby’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 28, 2018.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Rodney A. Davis, with the investigation. He also thanked the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Superintendent Col. Patrick J. Callahan, and the Millburn Police Department, under the direction of Chief Brian Gilfedder, for their assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jihee G. Suh of the U.S. Attorney Office’s Special Prosecutions Division in Newark

Defense counsel: Patrick McMahon Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark