Confessions of a Tax Evader

Damon Rowe Related Seminars and Products

Damon joins Meadows Collier after two decades of service at the IRS. His practice focus is White-Collar Crime, Tax Controversy and Government Regulatory Litigation. He has expertise in many areas including cryptocurrency, financial crimes, civil and criminal tax, money laundering, fraud, internal investigations and the Bank Secrecy Act.

Mr. Rowe began his career at the IRS in 1998 as a Special Agent and held numerous leadership positions for the agency. He served as the Special Agent in Charge for both the Los Angeles and Dallas Field Offices in the Criminal Investigation Division. This office investigates a diverse mix of financial investigations, including cybercrime, international tax fraud, identity theft, public corruption and Bank Secrecy Act. His next leadership position was Executive Director of International Operations in the Criminal Investigation Division. He successfully designed and implemented novel strategies to detect and mitigate international financial crimes, devised an international financial crime strategy used to train and educate thousands of global investigators in over 50 countries. His most recent position was Executive Director of the Office of Fraud Enforcement. While in this position, International and Domestic fraud threat mitigation strategies were developed and implemented for all IRS business operating divisions. This office implemented a four-pillar intelligence model which aided in fraud detection. He led the COVID Relief Fraud Project and the Joint International Task Force.

Damon is currently an Adjunct Professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, where he teaches a course in international white-collar crime.

Damon received his LL.M in Tax from SMU Dedman School of Law and his J.D, from Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He graduated from the University of Houston with a B.S. in Accounting.

Mr. Rowe was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1992.

Eddie Mendoza Related Seminars and Products

Eddie Mendoza draws on his experience as a former federal prosecutor and DOJ trial attorney to guide clients through complex investigations involving white-collar criminal offenses and criminal and civil tax controversies. He represents individuals and businesses facing federal enforcement actions, including those brought by the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service, and conducts internal investigations aimed at identifying and resolving issues before they escalate.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Mendoza served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, where he prosecuted hundreds of federal criminal cases, and later as a Trial Attorney in the DOJ’s Tax Division, where he litigated high-dollar tax disputes. His experience handling criminal and tax matters at the DOJ gives him unique insight into government investigations and complex litigation, allowing him to navigate enforcement actions with precision and efficiency.

At the DOJ, Mr. Mendoza led grand jury investigations, prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes, litigated dispositive motions, and handled sentencing and probation-revocation proceedings. He tried six felony cases to jury verdict, securing convictions in five—including one affirmed by the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On the civil side, he litigated multimillion-dollar tax disputes, including refund suits, fraudulent transfer actions, and enforcement cases against tax return preparers. He also handled nominee and alter ego liability cases, IRS summons enforcement actions, and constitutional challenges to the Internal Revenue Code based on the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses. In 2024, the DOJ recognized his work on a complex civil tax fraud case in Dallas with a Special Commendation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Mendoza practiced in the Dallas office of an international law firm, where he represented large companies in criminal and civil litigation, including a corporation under federal criminal probation and corporate monitorship.

Mr. Mendoza began his legal career clerking for U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee H. Toliver and U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo. He is an honors graduate of St. Mary’s University School of Law, where he served as an editor of the St. Mary’s Law Journal.