NASCAR team owner didn’t pay nearly $400K in payroll taxes, feds say. Now he’s charged
The owner and president of a NASCAR team didn’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee payroll taxes and put the money toward his other businesses, federal prosecutors said.
Ronald Devine, 67, the former owner of BK Racing, LLC, a limited liability company based in North Carolina, had control over the NASCAR team’s finances, including filing payroll taxes withheld from employees’ pay, according to prosecutors and court documents.
These taxes are withheld because they’re meant to help fund Social Security and Medicare, prosecutors explained.
Devine avoided paying payroll taxes from at least 2012 through 2017, when he didn’t pay more than $390,000 in taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service that year, according to prosecutors.
Federal investigators learned he used over $2 million for his other businesses and for BK Racing “expenses such as rent, utilities, and vendor bills,” prosecutors said.
A grand jury in Charlotte indicted Devine, of Burke, Virginia, on four counts of failure to pay payroll taxes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina announced in an Oct. 18 news release.
If he’s convicted on all four counts, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, prosecutors said.
Information regarding Devine’s legal representation wasn’t listed in court records as of Oct. 19.
The indictment comes after Devine previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for his team in 2018 three days before NASCAR’s Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500, NBC Sports reported.
At the time, a bankruptcy court was set to initiate legal action against Devine and accused his team of owing more than $8 million in bank loans, according to NBC Sports.
In August 2018, a judge ordered BK Racing be sold to Front Row Motorsports for $2.08 million, the outlet reported.
Under Devine’s ownership, BK Racing owned two NASCAR charters, according to prosecutors. The team featured at least two drivers every year from 2012 to 2018, including seven in 2014, 2016 and 2017, according to motorsportstats.com.
It’s unclear when Devine is due back in federal court.
Burke is about 20 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
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