Date: July 24, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Tulsa, OK — Today, U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill sentenced Deanna Rachel Long to serve twelve months and one day in prison for bank fraud and tax evasion. Judge Hill further ordered Long to three years of supervised release and to pay $278,257.54 in restitution to FCCC and $96,622 to the IRS. In 2012, the Family Crisis and Counseling Center (FCCC) in Bartlesville hired Long as a manager. She was entrusted to handle many aspects of FCCC’s accounting and finance functions, including record-keeping for the financial books, paying bills, and preparing checks for business expenses. Within two years of being hired, Long began embezzling money to fund personal expenses and fuel her gambling addiction. Court documents show that Long embezzled more than $278k from FCCC. Additionally, Long failed to report the illegal income and failed to file tax returns for tax years 2014 through 2022 with the IRS. After leaving FCCC, Long further filed false tax forms with her new employer claiming numerous exemptions to which she was not entitled to avoid any personal income taxes being deducted from her paychecks. State court records show Long has been arrested numerous times for passing bogus checks, pled guilty to bogus check charges, and pled guilty twice for embezzling from two prior employers. Long was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David D. Whipple prosecuted the case. 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.
