Jorge Castro, former Counselor to the IRS Commissioner during the Obama Administration and Democratic Congressional tax aide, commented on the possible role of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation (CI) division to assist in sanctioning Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine. Strengthening the IRS CI division to crack down on tax loopholes by Russian oligarchs is just one of several project recently floated by lawmakers on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees, who on a bipartisan basis have indicated they are willing to use all legislative means to apply financial restrictions on Russia. Castro said IRS CI could provide useful resources and a roadmap for enforcing policy decisions in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. "It's less so about initiating a tax audit," Castro noted. "I think CI to me clearly has the experience to investigate assets and follow [financial] trails."