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Former tax chief in the Northern District US Attorney's Office, Jay Well (who was not involved with the case), said that he had never seen a similar prosecution which involved a "case against some in-house guy within a corporation".
The case likely came about because Bechtel brought in John Williams Jr, former chief counsel of the IRS under President Bush, to do an internal investigation. Williams then pointed out Muntean and turned the contents of his probe over to the government. Without the Shearman probe, the government wouldn't have focused on Muntean, Youngquist contends.
Bechtel's media and public affairs manager Francis Canavan said in an emailed statement that the company "had no role in the U.S. Attorney's decision to indict Mr. Muntean and had no interest in the outcome of this criminal case."