Former IRS Investigator Sentenced

A former criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service was sentenced Monday to 63 months in federal prison for concealing his off-duty escapades with Hollywood prostitutes and for making a video of himself having sex with a minor.

Kenneth Philip Fazende, 44, was also ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

In June 2001, a 16-year-old prostitute who had spent the night in Fazende’s Hollywood apartment stole his keys and his government vehicle while he was gone. He told police the next day that his apartment had been broken into, but detectives could find no sign of a forced entry. With their suspicions aroused, they alerted federal authorities.

Fazende, who had worked for the IRS for seven years, was charged with lying during interviews and in reports he filed with the Treasury Department’s inspector general’s office about the vehicle theft and his relations with several prostitutes.

During the investigation, federal agents also seized a videotape showing Fazende engaging in sex with a 17-year-old girl in Trinidad.

The former agent admitted that he had hired the girl so that he could make the video.

Fazende, who pleaded guilty in July, could have received 78 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.