So he went to the tax office with a hot tip

You had me up until here. But the idea that a local tax office is going to follow a "hot tip" off of anyone, much less an ex-husband, is laughable. I've had to negotiate with the staff of my local tax office before and they don't move a muscle unless someone up the bureaucratic chain orders it. Maybe this guy was friends with the State AG somehow? Or some other senior bureaucrat? But past that, this sounds like total fiction.