Another IRS Official Takes the Fifth

So this happened in a House Government Oversight hearing today.

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According to the clip write-up, “Mr. Gregory Roseman, Deputy Director, Enterprise Networks and Tier Systems Support, was involved in securing nearly $500 million in government contracts to Strong Castle.”

The House committee is investigating whether the IRS awarded several “inappropriate” contracts.

A report issued by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California said the IRS, which is embroiled in a series of unrelated controversies, awarded the contracts to computer networking and security company Strong Castle Inc.

The report said Strong Castle’s president, Braulio Castillo, relied on a friendship with an IRS contracting official, Gregory Roseman, to win business. It said the company made false statements to beat rivals for the work.

The cost of Strong Castle’s 2012 contracts to the IRS, including for work in future years, could reach nearly $500 million, the report said.

The IRS’s watchdog is investigating the alleged contracting abuse, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We learned of new information today from the committee that we are currently looking into,” the IRS said.

Strong Castle denies the allegations, but the man who was in charge of awarding them just hid behind the Fifth Amendment.

Roseman is the second IRS official to plead the Fifth in an ongoing investigation this year. In the IRS abuse scandal, Lois Lerner pled the Fifth in May to avoid testifying. She has since been placed on paid administrative leave and may or may not have been fired. The alledgedly transparent Obama administration is mum on what has actually happened in Lerner’s case. Legislation has been filed to get her fired, but the IRS workers union pledges to fight that legislation.