Las Vegas IRS revenue officer says he was unfairly targeted

Nationally, the Internal Revenue Service has come under fire for targeting the Tea Party and other conservative political groups.

Now, it’s being accused of wrongly going after one of its own in Las Vegas.

Revenue Officer Anthony M. Zecchino, 41, is alleging in a federal lawsuit that the IRS enlisted the help of the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s office to target him in a criminal investigation in retaliation for discrimination claims he filed earlier this year.

U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Jacob Lew is the lone defendant named in an amended suit filed late last week by Zecchino’s lawyers, Paul Padda and Todd Leventhal.

“Dangling the threat of criminal prosecution over the head of any employee who has made legitimate complaints about discrimination is the ultimate abuse of government power,” Padda told the Review-Journal on Wednesday.

“Federal employees, or any other employee for that matter, should have an absolute right to a workplace free of discrimination and should feel comfortable pursuing their legal rights without fear of retaliation.”

The suit says Zecchino, who has worked for the IRS for 14 years, received a target letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Newman about a month after his lawyers filed a discrimination complaint alleging Zecchino’s supervisors made derogatory remarks about his Italian heritage.

In the March 8 letter, Newman said an internal Treasury Department investigation concluded Zecchino might have violated two federal criminal statutes -- unlawful acts by revenue officers and theft of government funds -- when he “improperly and fraudulently” closed out collection cases that still had “identifiable assets available for collection.

The target letter does not state Zecchino took any money for his own benefit, and his lawyers say there is no proof he profited from any of his actions.

“If your client is interested in resolving this matter short of an indictment, please contact me,” Newman wrote to Leventhal.

Newman gave Leventhal until the end of March to respond, but he did not respond.

“There is no criminal case here,” he said Wednesday. “We will fight this to the end.”

Zecchino’s lawyers said the target letter was an effort to intimidate him into abandoning his discrimination claims against the IRS.

“The legal theory underpinning the government’s threat to prosecute plaintiff is extremely flimsy and based upon a tortured manipulation of facts,” the lawyers wrote. “Although there is no evidence, let alone suggestion, that plaintiff profited from closing out any files, the (U.S. attorney’s office) has dubiously alleged the commission of a federal crime.

“The message to plaintiff and other government employees is clear; complain about discrimination or engage in whistle blowing and the government will seek to imprison the complainant and destroy his or her life.”

According to the suit, one of Zecchino’s supervisors once asked him if “all Italians dress like pimps” and on another occasion remarked that he collected taxes “like the Godfather and the Sopranos.”

The supervisor’s boss ignored the allegations and embarked on a “deranged and retaliatory” campaign against Zecchino that led to his demotion, denial of 240 hours of sick leave and targeting in the criminal investigation, the lawsuit claims.

The campaign was launched even though Zecchino has been “recognized by taxpayers for his sense of compassion, fairness and pleasant personality,” the suit says.

Zecchino, the suit explains, has been relegated to manning a reception kiosk at the IRS and denied an opportunity to transfer outside Nevada.

Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said Justice department policy forbids her to confirm or deny whether Zecchino is under investigation.

She also said she could not comment on Zecchino’s suit because it is ongoing litigation.

Amid Congressional scrutiny over the Tea Party allegations, President Obama accepted the resignation May 15 of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.