A former Internal Revenue Service employee has pleaded guilty to one count of receiving a bribe.
Fernando Hernandez, 33, admitted in a Dallas court Tuesday that on June 3, 2005, he sought and accepted a $2,000 cash payment from a taxpayer in return for promising that no IRS representative would audit the taxpayers return.
Hernandez was arrested last October at his IRS office in Dallas after a grand jury in Dallas returned an indictment earlier that week on the felony bribery charge (see
He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Hernandez is scheduled to be sentenced March 29 by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay.
The case is being investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Jarvis is in charge of the prosecution.
