One man's fraud is another man's bribery.  What was he so worried about, that he paid money to these "sophisticated" people with information in the public domain (and DEA is part of DOJ, they don't need to "work together")?  If you bribe a cop to stay out of jail, it's not deductible.  If you bribe someone pretending to be a cop, I don't think that makes a difference to IRS.  Just make sure the auditors are legitimate when they show up.