Former D.C. Government Official Pleads Guilty to Tax Charge, Under-Reported Income for Five Tax Years

            WASHINGTON – Warren Graves, 63, a former District of Columbia government official, pled guilty today to a federal charge stemming from his failure to fully report income on federal tax returns, announced U.S. Attorney Channing D. Philips and Thomas Jankowski, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

            Graves, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to subscribing to a false tax return. The charge carries a statutory maximum of three years in prison and potential financial penalties. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Graves faces a likely range of 12 to 18 months of incarceration and a potential fine of up to $55,000. The plea agreement calls for him to pay the United States Treasury a total of $220,987 in restitution. The Honorable Randolph D. Moss scheduled sentencing for Oct. 25, 2016.

            Graves was Chief of Staff for the District of Columbia’s Office of City Administrator from 2011 to 2015. Prior to that, from 2007 to 2011, he was a contractor who worked within the D.C. government.

            According to the government’s evidence, Graves owned a company that provided consulting services to individuals and entities in Washington, D.C. The work generally consisted of arranging meetings between District of Columbia government officials and private businesses and individuals. In general, the arrangements with clients involved performing services in exchange for a future stream of payments totaling an agreed amount. Most of this work was done prior to 2009, but Graves continued to receive payments for prior services in the following years, including in years when he was a District of Columbia government employee.

            In his plea, Graves admitted that he claimed false expenses on his tax returns for the tax years of 2009 to 2013 and that he omitted items of income in some of those years. This resulted in the under-reporting of $536,091 in income, leading to a loss of tax revenue to the U.S. government of $220,987.

            In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Phillips and Special Agent in Charge Jankowski commended the work of those who investigated the case from of the Washington Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. They expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the Department of Justice’s Tax Division. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Marston, who is prosecuting the case, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Atkinson, who assisted in the investigation.