Contractor in Iraq Plead Guilty to Tax Fraud

MEMPHIS, TENN. — Federal prosecutors say a U.S. contractor who worked in Iraq has pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return. The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis says 44-year-old Darrin Albert Searle entered the guilty plea eariler this week. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29. According to facts revealed in documents and in court, Searle failed to disclose $618,186 of income he received through kickbacks while working as a government contractor in Iraq in 2007.

Searle had been required to file amended returns and pay all relevant taxes, interest and penalties. The case was investigated by the Special Investigator General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Department of the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations.