A Great Falls businessman has been ordered to serve prison time and pay restitution for stealing nearly $4.5 million from the IRS and his customers.
A federal judge sentenced Rick Tariq Rahim, 56, on Friday (March 14) to six years and six months in prison after he pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and intentionally failing to report and pay taxes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.
Starting around March 2006 through 2018, Rahim owned and operated several businesses, including an Alternative Pet Care and several laser tag centers, under the name BusinessVenturesCOM. He also used the name BV Management to operate an Amazon reseller and other businesses from November 2012 through March 2022, according to court documents.
In both cases, the businesses used his home in Great Falls as their principal address.
According to a statement of facts from prosecutors, Rahim didn’t pay all of the taxes he owed for 2004 and 2011, and he has neglected to file personal or business income tax returns since 2012 “despite running several successful businesses and maintaining his cost of living.”
When the IRS attempted to collect the unpaid taxes from 2004 and 2011, he submitted a statement that “omitted valuable assets he owned, including a helicopter, a Bentley, a Lamborghini, and real estate in Great Falls.”
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release:
Approximately two weeks later, Rahim transferred ownership of the Great Falls property to his wife. He also paid personal expenses from his business bank accounts, including more than $889,000 toward his mortgages and more than $669,000 to purchase or lease cars, including three different Lamborghinis. Rahim withdrew more than $1.1 million in cash in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid triggering currency transaction reports from the bank. Rahim has not filed a personal income tax return since 2012 despite earning more than $34 million in gross income.
Rahim ultimately defrauded the IRS out of $4.4 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
According to court documents, in addition to operating the laser tag, pet care and Amazon reselling businesses, Rahim used social media, including Discord, YouTube and TikTok, to promote automated trading bots that enabled customers to copy his alleged investments for a subscription fee.
When advertising the bots and other trading software, Rahim claimed “he was extremely wealthy, boasting about trading millions of dollars and posting about his large home, pool, and luxury cars, including his Lamborghini.”
Prosecutors say Rahim also exaggerated his success on the stock market to customers and “hundreds of thousands of followers on social media” by not posting about trades where he lost money:
In fact, Rahim realized over $500,000 in losses from February 2021 through December 2022, and did not earn millions in the market during this time as he had claimed. As part of his fraud scheme, Rahim also created at least 20 Discord user profiles where he posted emojis, likes, and symbols showing agreement and excitement regarding Rahim’s posts.
Rahim made $1.397 million in subscription fees from the investment scheme, according to prosecutors. Customers also deposited over $8 million in cryptocurrency due to the automated trading bots.
In addition, in January 2022, Rahim personally traded stocks for two customers who had subscribed as “lifetime members” and met him at his office and at a Reston steakhouse, per court documents. He directed them to open a brokerage account and give him the log-in information, and they agreed to pay him 50% of any profits they made.
“On January 18, 2022, the two clients deposited $500,000 in the brokerage account for Rahim to trade for them because of Rahim’s numerous statements as to his own success as a trader, which materially exaggerated Rahim’s personal trading success in the past,” prosecutors said.
Though the investors saw some initial gains, with the account reaching a balance of approximately $638,000 on March 29, 2022, losing trades subsequently depleted their money. By the time they closed the account on Sept. 9, 2022, there was approximately $189,200 left — a drop in value of $310,800, according to court documents.
Rahim was indicted by a grand jury in Alexandria on Oct. 25, 2023 on one count of income tax payment evasion and 28 counts of willful failure to account for and pay trust fund taxes. He entered a plea agreement on March 15, 2024 where he pleaded guilty to one count of failing to pay taxes, but then-U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber later charged Rahim with wire fraud on Aug. 13, 2024 for the investment case, which was investigated by the FBI.
Waiving his right to an indictment, Rahim added a guilty plea for wire fraud to his agreement with prosecutors on Aug. 23, 2024.
In addition to serving prison time, Rahim has agreed to pay forfeiture of over $1.3 million as well as restitution to both the IRS and the investment fraud victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
Photo via Maxim Hopman on Unsplash
