Virginia business owner charged with tax evasion; failed to report helicopter, Lamborghini, more

An Alexandria business owner has been charged with income tax evasion and failure to pay employment taxes after taking steps to evade IRS efforts to collect more than $1 million.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria returned an indictment, unsealed today.

Rick Tariq Rahim faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the tax evasion count and five years in prison for each count of failing to pay employment tax withholdings.

According to the indictment, Rahim owned and operated two businesses: BV Management LLC, an Amazon reseller; and BusinessVentures.com LLC, an umbrella company overseeing businesses including laser tag facilities.

According to the indictment, in November 2016, Rahim submitted a false form to the IRS that omitted valuable assets he owned including a helicopter, a 2006 Bentley, a 2008 Lamborghini and other real property.

The indictment also alleges that Rahim withdrew more than $1.1 million in cash in amounts less than $10,000 each to avoid triggering currency transaction reports from the bank and paid personal expenses from his businesses’ bank accounts, including more than $889,000 he used toward his mortgages and more than $669,000 he used to purchase or lease cars, including three different Lamborghinis.

The indictment charges that from 2015 to 2021, Rahim did not pay the IRS the taxes that his businesses withheld from employee paychecks or file quarterly tax returns reporting those withholdings.

Rahim was also allegedly involved in a bribe scheme involving Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Howard Jenkins where Jenkins accepted bribes from Rahim, and in return, Jenkins named the payors auxiliary deputy sheriffs.

Jenkins also assisted Rahim in gaining approval for a petition to restore his firearms rights filed in Culpeper County Circuit Court that falsely stated that Rahim resided in Culpeper County, according to the indictment.

Rahim is charged in the Culpeper County case with one count of conspiracy, three counts of honest-services mail and wire fraud and three counts of federal programs bribery.

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Published date: June 29, 2023 | 1:12 pm