Ex-Nexus executive Richard Moore denied release after feds issue arrest warrants

HARRISONBURG — It appears that Richard E. Moore, the embattled former Nexus Services Inc. executive who is under siege in multiple courts, won't be getting released from incarceration anytime soon if federal authorities get their way.

Moore, 47, was all set to walk out of Middle River Regional Jail last week , but any dreams he had of freedom were put to rest after previously sealed warrants for his arrest were issued.

Facing federal tax fraud charges as well as state charges in a theft case, Moore was incarcerated earlier this year after making a mess of a plea deal in an unrelated Augusta County perjury case where he lied under oath to a magistrate. An official at Middle River Regional Jail said last week that he expected Moore, who was sentenced to nine months in jail on the perjury conviction, to be released.

But the unsealing of two arrest warrants issued by federal authorities kept Moore behind bars. It's unclear where he's being held at the time of this writing, but records show he was placed in federal custody after leaving the Verona jail Oct. 3.

A bond revocation hearing is set for Tuesday in Charlottesville, according to federal court records. Moore has retained his ninth attorney in the case, a tactic that has caused some issues with the presiding judge.

"The United States asserts that Moore’s actions have had the effect — and possibly were done with the intent — of delaying trial," U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon said at a July hearing where she ordered Moore be tried in December with or without an attorney.

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Moore's problems in the federal system began in late 2021 when he was indicted on 10 charges of tax fraud after it was alleged the former Nexus executive withheld Social Security, Medicare and federal taxes from employee paychecks but didn't turn the money over to the IRS as required by law. Two more charges were later tacked on.

Now, federal authorities are claiming the alleged tax fraud didn't stop with the initial indictments.

On Sept. 27, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon issued an arrest warrant for Moore after a second superseding indictment charged him with six additional counts of tax fraud, claiming he continued to bilk the IRS after he was first indicted in 2021. He is now facing 18 felony counts in the case.

"Based on the defendant’s failure to comply with his conditions of release and his continued criminal conduct, this officer respectfully requests that a warrant be issued," a federal probation officer said in a court filing seeking Moore's arrest.

On Oct. 1, a second federal judge issued another arrest warrant for Moore, alleging he violated his pretrial release supervision by reportedly continuing to bilk the IRS. In all, Moore is accused of taking $1.8 million that was slated for the federal government.

"He promised the Court he would not commit crimes, and yet it appears that less than a year after indictment and release he broke that promise, committed the same federal tax crime he had been indicted for violatingten times before, and continued to commit that crime quarter after quarter after quarter – six times total, until he was imprisoned by the Commonwealth on unrelated charges," said a federal court petition supporting the revocation of Moore's bond.

He's scheduled to be tried on the federal tax charges Dec. 2 in Harrisonburg. The trial is set for two weeks.

Three months after the federal trial, Moore and his spouse, Michael Donovan, the former majority owner of Nexus, will be tried in March on Augusta County charges after being accused in 2022 of stealing $426,000 from Zachary Cruz, the brother of convicted Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz. The couple befriended the younger Cruz following the 2018 mass shooting by his brother that killed 17 people. Moore and Donovan then moved him to Virginia.

Nexus brought in nearly a quarter-of-a-billion dollars over the past decade or so while providing bond securitization for immigrants held or released from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In October 2022, the Augusta County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police swarmed the company's Verona headquarters, which went into foreclosure last year before being auctioned off. The Fishersville home of Donovan and Moore was also raided in connection with the Augusta County investigation. Both are facing two charges each of obtaining money by false pretenses and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult in the county case that lists Cruz as the victim. Timothy Shipe, also a former Nexus executive, is facing two felony charges as well.

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Earlier this year in April, after being accused of engaging in a "slew of deceptive conduct," Nexus and its subsidiary, Libre by Nexus, along with Moore, Donovan and another former executive at Nexus, Evan Ajin, were ordered to pay a mammoth sum of more than $811 million in a federal civil lawsuit that crippled the company, which was sold off for less than $5 that same month. The 17-count lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), along with the states of Virginia, Massachusetts and New York. The lawsuit said the company preyed on immigrants and coerced them into making thousands of dollars in non-refundable payments, along with misleading them about the services Nexus provided.

In May, a federal judge ordered the former Verona company be placed into receivership in an ongoing six-year legal battle with an Illinois Insurance company, RLI, forcing Nexus to finally open up its books in an effort to scrutinize its finances. The judge said the company's "years-long pattern of noncompliance and deception" left him no choice.

Nexus has been involved in a legal fight with RLI since 2018, when the Illinois company filed a complaint in federal court that sought an injunction to an indemnity agreement. In its initial complaint, RLI said Nexus failed in several instances "to timely pay bond claims, despite contrary representations to RLI, exposing RLI to additional interest and penalties in excess of the bond’s penal sums."

In 2020, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski ordered Nexus to pay $3.3 million in losses, costs, damages, and fees for attorneys and expenses in the RLI case. But Nexus stalled, delaying collection efforts during the post-discovery process and hindering the court's effectiveness in determining the company's ability to pay, court records state.

Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on X (formerly Twitter).

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Ex-Nexus executive Richard Moore denied release after feds issue arrest warrants