Polk County Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Murder for Hire of Irs Employee

TAMPA, FL—United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton announced today that United States District Judge James S. Moody Jr. has sentenced Randy Nowak (age 50, of Mulberry, Florida) to 30 years in federal prison for the attempted murder of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee. Nowak had been convicted by a federal jury on December 19, 2008.

According to court documents and trial testimony, Nowak hired a hit man, who was actually an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, to kill the IRS employee because she was investigating Nowak's personal and professional tax liabilities to the IRS after Nowak, who is the owner of RJ Nowak Enterprises, Inc., a Polk County construction company, claimed on tapes made by the government that he had hidden more than $3 million over the last eight years. On July 29, 2008, Nowak met with the undercover FBI agent posing as a hit man and paid him $10,000 as a down payment for killing the IRS employee. During the same meeting, Nowak identified a picture of his intended victim and also asked the undercover agent if he would be willing to burn down the IRS office in Lakeland because Nowak wanted his tax problems to "go away, go away."

This case was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the FBI. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Amanda Riedel.