Former NASCAR Cup Series team owner Ron Devine was indicted on Wednesday of four counts of failure to pay payroll taxes, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
Devine, 67, was the primary owner of BK Racing, which fielded cars from 2012 to 2018.
Devine infamously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the team just 72 hours prior to the 2018 Daytona 500, shortly before a bank proceeding began over its request to operate the team and seek a preliminary injunction to prevent Devine from selling or leasing the BK Racing ownership charter.
The bank claimed that BK Racing owed more than $8 million in outstanding loans.
A bankruptcy court sold the team’s assets and charter to Front Row Motorsports later that season for $2.08 million.
According to the indictment, Devine oversaw the financial affairs of the team as owner and president of BK Racing, LLC. It alleges that starting in 2012, Devine caused BK Racing to fail to account for paying payroll taxes.
It also states that Devine failed to pay over $390,000 in payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service in 2017. It says that from 2012 and 2017, instead of using funds held in trust to pay payroll taxes, Devine transferred more than $2 million to other businesses and entities that owned and operated.
The indictment alleges that Devine used those funds to pay for BK Racing expenses like rent, utilities, and vendor fees.
Payroll taxes are withheld from employees’ pay and used to fund Social Security and Medicare while also including the income taxes withheld from employee paychecks. Employers are required to make contributions to trust fund taxes matching the amounts from their employees’ pay and to file quarterly forms indicating payment of the relevant taxes.
Devine will first appear in a Charlotte federal court. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the four counts detailed in the indictment.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.