Date: Feb. 16, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov DENVER — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Michael Aaron Tew and Kimberly Ann Tew both of Denver, Colorado were found guilty for their roles in a wire fraud scheme that defrauded National Air Cargo, a logistics company and contractor for the Department of Defense. A federal jury in Denver returned guilty verdicts against the Tews on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. According to the facts established at trial, beginning in 2018, Michael Tew and Kimberly Tew conspired to defraud National Air Cargo through the submission of dozens of false invoices for services and items that were never provided. Over the course of two years, with the help of a co-conspirator, the Tews defrauded the business of five million dollars. Testimony at trial demonstrated the Tews gambled away much of the money and spent $2.4 million buying Bitcoin at Bitcoin ATMs across the Denver area. Michael Tew also failed to file federal income tax returns for tax years 2016 through 2019, on both his earned income and funds obtained from the fraud scheme. “Financial crimes are serious, and this verdict shows there are consequences to such actions,” said U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan. “We thank both IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) and the FBI for their exceptional work and partnership on this long-running investigation, which helps to ensure that fraudsters are held accountable for their actions.” “IRS CI special agents are the federal law enforcement’s premier financial investigators, and we will continue to lead the way in investigating tax cases and financial crimes,” said Todd Martin, Special Agent in Charge, Denver Field Office. “This verdict is an example of the impressive work of our special agents and reinforces the fact that we work diligently to investigate tax crimes. We are proud to have assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI in unraveling the Tew’s sophisticated scheme and holding them accountable for evading their taxes and stealing from National Air Cargo. “FBI Denver’s Complex Financial Crimes squad will continue to work with our state, local and federal partners to investigate and seek justice for when criminals cheat, lie and steal for their own personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek. United States District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico presided over the jury trial. Sentencing will be held at a later date. CI and the FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Bryan Fields and Sarah Weiss, and former AUSA Hetal Doshi handled the prosecution. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
