Ex-IRS Agent Admits Sex-Related Cover-Up

A former criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service pleaded guilty Monday to covering up his off-duty escapades with Hollywood hookers and importing a videotape depicting him having sex with a 17-year-old girl.

Kenneth Philip Fazende, 44, who had worked as an IRS agent for seven years, faces 63 to 78 months in prison under terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Fazende came under suspicion in 2001, when he reported to police that his unmarked IRS car had been stolen by a burglar who broke into his Hollywood apartment and stole the keys. Investigators could find no signs of a forced entry and were puzzled why other valuables were not taken

In his plea agreement, Fazende admitted having fabricated the burglary story. In fact, he said, a 16-year-old prostitute he had picked up on Sunset Boulevard stole the keys and made off with the car after he left her alone in his apartment.

Fazende also admitted having been involved with two other Hollywood prostitutes in 1999 and 2000, one of whom stole his personal car.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Rubinstein charged in court Monday that Fazende lied repeatedly to investigators from the Treasury Department’s inspector general’s office about the loss of his official vehicle and about his association with prostitutes, contending at one point that he was looking into tax cheating by Hollywood hookers and pimps.

In May, Fazende was arrested on the cover-up charges when he arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on a flight from Trinidad and Tobago.

A customs search of his luggage turned up a video camera containing footage of him having sex with a teenage girl, who was subsequently identified and located by Trinidad and Tobago police, according to prosecutors.

Another videotape of him having sex with the same girl was recovered when Treasury agents searched a residence that Fazende shared with a brother in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Fazende, who is being held without bond, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 8 by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter on charges of concealing and covering up material facts in an official investigation and of making a sexually explicit video of a minor for import into the United States.