IRS Supervisor Pleads Guilty To Accepting Bribes From A Government Subcontractor

Washington - A Maryland man pleaded guilty to accepting cash bribes in exchange for helping acquaintances and their businesses procure and continue work on subcontracts with the IRS.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

According to court documents, Satbir Thukral, 62, of Germantown, worked for the IRS as a computer engineer and served in a position supervising various information technology contracts. In September 2018, Individual 1's company (Company 1) began working on a subcontract for the IRS that Thukral supervised. Starting in October 2018, Thukral sought portions of Individual 1's earnings and of the earnings of two employees of Company 1 from Company 1's work on the IRS subcontract. Individual 1 made such payments between 2018 and 2020, but in early February 2021, told Thukral that Individual 1 would not make any more payments. Thukral then told Individual 1 that Individual 1 would suffer economic consequences if Individual 1 did not continue to pay. In early February 2023, Individual 1 - at the direction of law enforcement - recorded an in-person meeting with Thukral. During the meeting, Individual 1 told Thukral that the FBI had asked Individual 1 about Individual 1's subcontracting work with the IRS and bank withdrawals Individual 1 had made. To conceal that Individual 1 had made the payments to Thukral, Thukral instructed Individual 1 to tell lies to the FBI about the nature of the cash withdrawals. Later that same day, to assist and induce Individual 1 to lie to the FBI and to further conceal payments that Thukral demanded and received from Individual 1, Thukral returned a portion of the proceeds received from Individual 1. In total, however, Individual 1 paid Thukral more than $120,000.

In July 2022, Thukral was also involved in a scheme in which he and Co-conspirator 1 (CC-1), who was previously a manager at a prime contractor (Company 2) with the IRS, began secretly communicating via a "burner phone" related to IRS contracting and potential payments to Thukral. The next month, CC-1 provided Thukral with approximately $2,800 that CC-1 had received from another individual to pay Thukral. CC-1 made the payment, in part, in return for Thukral facilitating the continued employment of individuals at Company 3 and Company 4 - both companies being IRS subcontractors with whom CC-1 had an affiliation, and both employees being underqualified for their positions - to work on existing IRS matters. In addition, at the time of the payment, Thukral had been selected to serve on a three-person panel that would have evaluated the technical feasibility of bids for an upcoming IRS contract valued at approximately $200 million.

Thukral pleaded guilty to Acceptance of Bribes by a Public Official. At sentencing, not yet scheduled by the court, Thukral faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U. S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI and TIGTA for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Wright, Christopher Sarma and Trial Attorney Matt Kahn of the Justice Department's Fraud Section, who are prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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