Feds: East Meadow accountant arrested for trying to bribe IRS agent

An East Meadow accountant is under a federal indictment for attempting to bribe an agent of the Internal Revenue Service to overlook his potential tax liabilities, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. 

Mohammad Sayeem, 42, was arrested on Sept. 23 and charged with bribing a public official with a Michael Kors wristwatch and $1,500, officials said. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

According to the federal indictment, the IRS agent who was auditing Sayeem met him at his East Meadow home three times between June 2019 and February 2020. On the first visit, Sayeem asked the agent if he could give him a gift, and offered him an envelope.

Both the agent and Sayeem are Muslim, and Sayeem claimed that the gift was for the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, according to the indictment. But the agent refused the gift, and reported Sayeem’s action to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The agent showed up for the second meeting, on Oct. 22, 2019, wearing a wire, and recorded his interaction with Sayeem. Sayeem again asked if he could give the agent a gift for “being a friend,” the indictment states, and added that he would rather his money go to a fellow Muslim than fund the “U.S. government’s foreign entanglements and support for Israel.”

During a third and final meeting, on Feb. 19, 2020, Sayeem told the agent that he would give him the Michael Kors wristwatch and $1,500 in exchange for a false claim by the agent that Sayeem had no tax liability, court documents state. The agent pretended to agree to Sayeem’s terms, as advised by his supervisors, to further the investigation, and, as part of the ruse, filled out a Report of Income Tax Examination Change, which stated that Sayeem’s tax returns were acceptable and that he had no liability. Sayeem actually owed the IRS $30,000.

Sayeem is being represented by the Long Island Federal Defender’s office, which does not comment on pending cases.