By all outward appearances, IRS attorney and Georgetown Law Professor Jack Vitayanon, 41, seemed to be an upstanding citizen.  He was, after all, a trusted attorney adviser for the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility in Washington under the United States Department of the Treasury, as well as teaching on the same subject matter at Georgetown.  One would venture to guess Vitayanon to be a fairly responsible person, at least professionally, so to speak.  However, appearances can be deceiving.Turns out, this isn’t the case at all.   An undercover sting led by Homeland Security Investigations discovered Vitayanon had been deep in a drug ring from September 2014 to January 2017, distributing methamphetamine in Long Island, New York, and Arizona. Agents discovered Vitayanon’s misdeeds after tracking and confiscating a FedEx package as it was being delivered to a woman.  She told authorities Vitayanon and her used the same source of supply in Arizona.

Image Courtesy of The New York Post

A search of Vitayanon’s residence in the U Street corridor revealed what appeared to be methamphetamine and related paraphernalia.  He was charged with conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of the drug, a charge announced this past Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Robert Capers of the Eastern District of New York. “As alleged, the defendant – a federal attorney working for the IRS’s Office of Professional Responsibility – ‘broke bad’ and supplemented his income by selling distribution quantities of methamphetamine. The defendant will now be held to account for his alleged criminal conduct,” Capers stated.  Despite his reference to the popular AMC television series, these charges come without the same Hollywood ending.Evidently Vitayanon didn’t make enough at his respectable day jobs and used the trafficking to supplement his income.  A lucrative business indeed, while it lasted.  During the alleged transactions pinning Vitayanon to his distribution charges, which occurred between December 2016 and January 2017, Vitayanon is said to have instructed the buyer to deposit $1650 into his bank accounts in exchange for delivering one ounce of meth, Uber rides and shipping costs included.  Vitayanon provided the routing and account numbers for these accounts, which were in his name, and he proceeded to text the cooperating source multiple times requesting that the money be made in two installments, one into an account at Chase and one into an account controlled by their Arizona source.Vitayanon had also been recorded by Internet video chats setting up a transaction with his buyer, according to John Lattuca, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent, apparently all the while smoking meth from a glass pipe in his apartment.  Candid camera has Vitayanon confirming his distribution duties and agreeing to the terms of sale.  When the package was intercepted, the white crystalized substance found inside field tested positive for methamphetamine.Vitayanon was detained and agreed to be transported to Brookyln in his first court date on Thursday, February 2nd.  He appeared before U.S. Magistrate G. Michael Harvey of Washington.  Prosecutors note that no New York date has been set.  Vitayanon’s lawyer, Edward C. Sussman, has declined to comment.

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