SALT LAKE CITY — A former Internal Revenue Service employee who was based out of Syracuse knows how long he will spend behind bars for his role in a fraud scheme.
Rodney Quinn Rupe, 47, was sentenced to 12 months and a day imprisonment for wire fraud after he abused his position as a former IRS employee and attempted to steal more than $2 million in tax credits.
Rupe pleaded guilty on June 11, 2025, to wire fraud. His sentence also includes two years of supervised release.
According to court documents and Rupe's statements at the plea and sentencing hearings, on April 15, 2022, Rupe, an employee of the IRS, accessed IRS systems and moved tax credits from ExxonMobil's account to a company that Rupe owned and controlled.
The credits, investigators say, were worth $2,021,986.
Rupe admitted to moving the tax credits through three separate transfers. On September 18, 2023, Rupe transferred the credits so they would be applied to the 2019 tax year account for his company, knowing it would result in a refund check for the company.
Prosecutors say on October 31, 2023, Rupe resigned from the IRS and unsuccessfully attempted to deposit the refund check multiple times in 2024.
“As a former IRS employee, Mr. Rupe accessed an IRS database as a trusted government employee to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars for his own personal use,” said U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah. “This administration is committed to ferreting out programmatic government fraud, particularly by those who abused their positions rather than protecting the Americans they swore to serve.”
