Federal officials allege this photo shows Taylor holding up five fingers to confirm a $5,000 bribe. Photo from court documents.
Federal officials allege this screenshot from a video shows Taylor holding up five fingers to confirm a $5,000 bribe. Photo from court documents.

A woman who works at the IRS office in Long Beach took $5,000 in cash to reduce a man’s taxes by tens of thousands of dollars, federal officials said Thursday.

Felecia Edna Taylor, 50, could now face up to 15 years in prison if she’s convicted of solicitation and receiving a bribe as a public official, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said.

Authorities allege the scheme started in late April when a taxpayer who was being audited had a meeting with Taylor to go over his liability at the Federal Building in Downtown Long Beach.

The man was hoping to get a tax bill reduced from $33,000 to $15,000, he wrote in an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint against Taylor.

But after going over deductions, Taylor wouldn’t budge on the number, “as she was not willing to use any of my additional information provided,” the man wrote.

After the meeting, Taylor walked the taxpayer out to the parking garage where she “said that she could help me,” according to the affidavit.

They agreed the man would bring $5,000 in unmarked cash to a second meeting where Taylor would sign off on adjusted taxes that only required $10,000, according to court papers.

Within days, the taxpayer contacted law enforcement. He told them Taylor had insisted on meeting in person to go over the taxes, according to court documents. He said he now suspected Taylor “profiled me and had a plan to make some extra money.”

Authorities set up a sting and videotaped the second meeting on Tuesday, May 7, they wrote.

Federal officials said the video shows Taylor taking an envelope of $100 bills, putting five fingers in the air and mouthing the word “Five?”

When the business owner confirms the amount, she said, “We are all done,” according to court papers.

Two days later, she was arrested, the feds said.

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.