Nexus Services exec sentenced to 6.5 years for employment tax fraud

Note: This story by Beth JoJack originally appeared in Virginia Business.

An executive of Virginia-based bonding company Nexus Services was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison for employment tax fraud Thursday.

Richard Moore, executive vice president and part owner of the Verona-based company that provided bond securitization to immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pleaded guilty in January to two counts related to not accounting for and paying employment taxes.

Moore, who lived in Augusta County, withheld funds for employment taxes to the IRS but did not give the money to the government between 2015 and 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In total, Moore caused a tax loss of about $3.1 million, the federal government stated.

Moore spent millions of dollars of Nexus funds on himself, according to court documents. His purchases included more than $500,000 on luxury cars, including three Ferraris, three Maseratis, two BMWs and a Mercedes-Benz. He shelled out more than $573,000 on his August 2016 wedding. He also paid more than $1.2 million to write, publish and publicize a book written by his spouse.

U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon for the Western District of Virginia also ordered Moore to serve three years under supervised release and to pay more than $3 million in restitution to the United States.

Moore faced a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison for each count. Originally, Moore was indicted on 10 counts of tax fraud.

In October, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit upheld an $881 million judgement against Libre by Nexus, its parent company, Nexus Services, and its principals, Moore, Michael Donovan and Evan Ajin, for deceit and abuse of immigrant consumers. Of that, more than $555 million goes to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; about $13.9 million to New York; about $3.4 million to Massachusetts and $7.1 million to Virginia for penalties. Another $231 million goes to restitution to affected consumers.