Comptroller Huffines Launches Strike Team to Hunt Fraud and Corruption Against Texas Taxpayers

Texas Comptroller Don Huffines has created a statewide unit to investigate fraud and public corruption involving taxpayer money, and he is asking Texans to report what they see.

The Texas Fraud Investigation and Recovery Strike Team, called Texas FIRST, sits inside the comptroller’s Law Enforcement Operations Division, according to the comptroller’s announcement on October 22. It works with the division’s regional investigators across the state and with local, state and federal law enforcement.

“Texas FIRST finds those who lie and cheat to steal taxpayer money, recovers what they took, and builds the cases that send the crooks to prison,” Huffines said. “No one is off limits.”

What it investigates

The agency’s page for the unit lists four kinds of cases. Public corruption covers “abuse of public office, authority, or influence involving public funds.” Government fraud covers “fraudulent activity involving public funds, programs, or resources.”

Sales tax fraud means “intentionally failing to remit collected taxes to the state or falsifying records required by law.” Unclaimed property fraud means “submission of fraudulent claims or documentation to unlawfully obtain unclaimed funds held by the state.”

The unit will hold offenders accountable “regardless of their position, status, or influence,” the page says.

Texans as “eyes and ears”

Huffines asked the public to send tips. “I am relying on all Texans to be my eyes and ears on the ground,” he said. “Help us help you: If you see something, say something.”

Reports of fraud, tax evasion, waste or abuse go through the comptroller’s whistleblower portal, which goes straight to the agency’s investigators.

Part of a larger overhaul

The announcement calls Texas FIRST the latest step in Huffines’ restructuring of the office since he took office on August 1. The office says he has since added fraud-detection controls meant to block illegitimate payments before money goes out, started reviews of spending at major school districts, cut off state grants for surveillance tools, and required contractors and grantees to meet compliance terms or face immediate termination.

He also reorganized the comptroller’s criminal investigation division into a statewide financial crimes unit, the office said.