Ex-IRS Agent Pleads Guilty to 2 Tax Counts : Crime: Despite surprise move, prosecutor still intends to press for trial on scores of remaining counts.

In a surprise tactical ploy, a former IRS agent accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes pleaded guilty Wednesday in San Diego federal court to two felony tax counts, apparently aiming to head off a lengthy trial and score a reduced prison term.

Robert A. Morales Sr., accused of 200 felonies that could earn him well over 100 years in prison, pleaded guilty to two counts that could bring him a maximum of eight years behind bars.

Prosecutors said they had no advance warning of the pleas, which were not part of any deal. Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip L.B. Halpern said he was by no means satisfied and intends to take Morales to trial Oct. 1 on the 198 counts remaining against him.

“This is a case about bribery and money laundering,” he said. “This case is not limited to garden-variety tax evasion.”

In dollar amounts, the case is the largest bribe case in IRS history, prosecutors said in May in announcing the indictment against Morales, a 30-year IRS employee, and his accountant son, Robert A. Morales Jr.

Prosecutors allege that Morales Sr. helped Imperial Valley lettuce farmer Mario Saikhon with tax problems in exchange for money that was paid to “ghost” employees and funneled to bogus firms set up by Morales Jr.

Saikhon, who remains under investigation, runs one of the largest farming operations in Southern California. Over the last three years, according to the indictment, income from his farming has grossed more than $90 million.

Morales Sr., 62, abused his position by “controlling” and failing to properly audit tax returns during the past 10 years, prosecutors contend. In return for manipulating returns to help Saikhon evade tax payments, Morales Sr. accepted more than $400,000 in bribes from Saikhon, prosecutors allege.

Morales Jr., 28, who lived with his father in El Cajon, facilitated the scheme, prosecutors claim, by setting up two sham corporations. That assisted Saikhon in generating false deductions that helped him evade paying tax on millions of dollars of income, prosecutors allege.

The 200 charges against Morales Sr., who retired last year, include money laundering and bribery.

Both father and son remain in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego. Morales Sr. has been denied bond. Morales Jr. has been unable to post $600,000 bond.

Eugene Iredale, Morales Sr.’s defense attorney, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Iredale had claimed in May that the only truthful item in the 48-page indictment was the spelling of his client’s name.

Morales Sr. pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of tax evasion and a sole count of aiding and abetting in the filing of a false tax return, Halpern said, adding, “It wasn’t unexpected. It was a surprise, but it wasn’t totally unexpected.”

In his plea, Morales Sr. admitted that on his 1986 Form 1040 he falsely put his income at $19,739 and tax owing at $2,321, Halpern said. His income that year was “substantially in excess” of that because that was when he began taking bribes, the indictment alleges.

Morales Sr. also admitted Tuesday that he filed a phony 1986 return to cover up interest income earned on a payroll account paid to a bogus Saikhon employee, cash that prosecutors contend went directly to Morales Sr.

U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. set sentencing for Nov. 14.