Ronald Devine, a former NASCAR team owner, was indicted by a grand jury in Charlotte, N.C. on Wednesday. He’s facing four counts of failure to pay payroll taxes, the government stated in an official news release this week.
Ron Devine’s BK Racing was part of NASCAR from 2012 to 2018 | SCREENSHOT: The Wheelspin Report/YouTube
Devine is the former owner and president of BK Racing. The indictment alleges that he failed to pay more than $390,000 in payroll taxes due to the IRS, in the fiscal year 2017. The indictment further alleges that – between 2012 and 2017 – instead of using the funds held in trust to pay for payroll taxes due, Devine transferred more than $2 million to other businesses and entities that he owned and controlled and used some of the funds to pay for BK Racing’s expenses such as rent, utilities, and vendor bills.
No longer involved with NASCAR Devine will have his initial appearance in federal court in Charlotte. The charge of failure to truthfully account for and pay over trust fund taxes carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the four counts in the indictment.
Payroll taxes are withheld from employees’ gross pay and used to fund Social Security and Medicare – and also include the income taxes withheld from the employees’ paychecks. Employers are required to make contributions to trust fund taxes matching the amounts from their employees’ pay. Devine is accused of not doing so during his time as a NASCAR owner from 2012-2018.
The 67-year-old Ronald Devine filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the team (just 72 hours before the 2018 Daytona 500) right as court proceedings were beginning to seize, and operate, BK Racing. The court was seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent him from selling or leasing the team’s charter.
The bank claimed that by the time he left NASCAR, Devine owed more than $8 million in outstanding loans. BK Racing was liquidated, with all the assets going to Front Row Motorsports.
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