Former federal agent sentenced to six-plus years for tax evasion

A former federal agent from Naperville was sentenced to more than six years in prison after being found guilty of tax evasion.

Anthony Sabaini, 41, was convicted by a jury in May of illegally structuring financial transactions, concealing material facts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and filing false federal tax returns, according to court records.

Sabaini, a former agent with Homeland Security Investigations, was accused of tipping off an informant about other federal investigations looking into the informant's potential illegal activities.

Investigators said Sabaini was paid $50,000 by the informant for protection and lied to superiors about the informant's past and ongoing criminal conduct.

Prosecutors also said Sabaini stole money from drug dealers and pocketed money that had been earmarked for official purposes.

According to court records, Sabaini deposited more than $250,000 into a bank account that only he could access over the course of 160-plus transactions during a five-year span. Each transaction was under the $10,000 reporting limit.

During that time, he underreported income on his federal taxes.

In addition to his prison sentence, Sabaini was also ordered to pay $93,422 in restitution.