Virginia man sentenced after withholding $3.1 million in income taxes from the IRS

AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A former Virginia business owner has been sentenced to six years in prison for withholding more than $3.1 million in income taxes from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Between 2015 and 2024, Richard Moore repeatedly withheld income taxes from his employees' wages but did not pay them to the IRS or file the returns, according to the DOJ. At the time, Moore was the executive vice president and part-owner of Nexus Services Inc., a Verona-based company that offers financial services to detained immigrants.

Court documents state that Moore was responsible for filing employment taxes with the IRS as he was in charge of Nexus's financial and business operations — including the hiring and firing of employees, directing the day-to-day management and paying company bills.

From April 2014 through January 2021, on several occasions, Moore withheld trust fund taxes — which include income, Social Security and Medicare taxes — from his employees' paychecks but did not report the funds or the required paperwork to the IRS.

He withheld a total of $1.87 million in trust fund taxes on behalf of Nexus employees for several quarters between 2015 and 2020, per court documents. After Moore was indicted in December 2021 for "willful failure to truthfully account for and pay over to the IRS Nexus's trust fund taxes," he withheld an additional $377,652 from 2022 to 2024.

According to court documents, Moore also spent millions of dollars of Nexus's money on personal purchases, including:

• Over $501,000 in car payments, including on three Ferraris, three Maseratis, two BMWs and a Mercedes-Benz
• Over $1.1 million to write, publish and publicize a book by his spouse, who's also a co-owner of Nexus
  • Court documents named Michael Donovan as a co-founder and majority owner of the company, stating that Donovan controlled 51% of Nexus shares -- the other co-defendant and part-owner of Nexus is Evan Ajin
• Over $573,000 in personal wedding expenses in August 2016

In addition to his 6-year sentence, Moore was ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release, the DOJ said.

Additionally, in another case in which Moore was named defendant, the court found that Nexus subsidiary Libre targeted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees and "operate[d] a business aimed at immigrants held in federal detention" through false and misleading statements and omissions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the attorneys general in three states — Virginia, Massachusetts and New York — brought charges against Libre, Nexus and its leadership, namely Moore, Donovan and Ajin. Libre utilized "deceptive, abusive, and fraudulent conduct" in its immigration bond services, court documents said.

Nexus, Libre and all three co-owners were ordered to pay more than $230 million in consumer redress and more than $555 million in total civil penalties, per court documents.