Date: Feb. 15, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Louisville, KY — A Louisville man was sentenced this week to 5 years and 3 months in federal prison for possessing a firearm after having previously been convicted of a felony offense and money laundering. U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge J. Todd Scott of the DEA Louisville Field Division, Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles Birch of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI), Cincinnati Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Stansbury of the FBI Louisville Field Office, and Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel of the Louisville Metro Police Department made the announcement. According to court documents, Steven Meredith was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for possessing a firearm after having previously been convicted of a felony offense and for laundering monetary instruments by transferring $40,000 in checks and cash to purchase real property located on Woodruff Avenue in Louisville, knowing the funds involved the proceeds of dealing in controlled substances. Meredith was also ordered to pay a fine of $20,000. Meredith was prohibited from possessing a firearm because he had previously been convicted of the following felony offenses: On Dec. 19, 1996, in Jefferson Circuit Court, Meredith was convicted of burglary in the second degree and receiving stolen property over $300. On Aug. 25, 2010, in Jefferson Circuit Court, Meredith was convicted of complicity to receiving stolen property over $1000, trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. There is no parole in the federal system. The case was investigated by the CI and the DEA, with assistance from the FBI Laboratory and IRS-CI Center for Science and Design. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Bonar and Amy Sullivan prosecuted the case. This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multiagency approach. 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.
