Richard Moore jailed: Litter pickup, or lack of, ensnares former Nexus Services executive
STAUNTON — Richard Moore's problems are aplenty, but it was seemingly the least of his worries that landed the former Nexus Services Inc. executive behind bars over the weekend.
Despite being slapped with 12 charges of federal tax fraud, a case that started in 2021 and accuses him of bilking the IRS out of $1.5 million, Moore remained free as the case continues to crawl through the federal court system. Last year, when Augusta County authorities accused Moore and two others of stealing more than $400,000 from a teenager whose older brother killed 17 people in a Florida school shooting, he was again allowed to remain free on a $50,000 bond to avoid jail.
Now it appears his refusal to pick up litter — part of a plea deal Moore agreed to in a seemingly minor Augusta County perjury case — has put the previously convicted felon back behind bars. He remains at Middle River Regional Jail in Verona, where he is being held without bond.
The perjury case centers around Moore and David Briggman, a former Nexus employee and private process server. In 2019, Moore had Briggman charged with assault after filing a complaint through a magistrate. In the complaint, Moore accused Briggman, who was serving papers, of throwing a heavy pack of court documents at him while he was sitting in his car, supposedly striking him in the neck and chest. The magistrate then issued an arrest warrant for Briggman.
However, Briggman filmed the entire encounter that took place in the drive-thru of a Staunton Starbucks. The video showed that Moore allegedly wasn't telling the truth. In a letter to Moore, Staunton prosecutor Jeff Gaines said the video showed Briggman handing him the papers. Moore was charged with perjury in Augusta County, where the complaint against Briggman was filed. The assault charge in Staunton was dropped.
The perjury case seemingly wrapped up in September when Moore, who has several felony bad check convictions with some over two decades old, pleaded no contest to the perjury charge. His plea was taken under advisement for a year, meaning it would be dismissed if he stayed trouble-free. As part of the deal, Moore had to complete 40 hours of litter pickup by Dec. 1 through the Augusta County Litter Control Program.
It turns out he didn't pick up one piece of trash before the court-ordered deadline, according to court documents.
Last week, a sealed motion was filed in the case by the Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney Office. A second sealed motion was also filed in Moore's theft case. On Saturday, the Augusta County Sheriff's Office arrested Moore.
The motions have since been unsealed.
Motion: "23-year history of criminal fraud"
Moore was indicted on the Augusta County perjury charge in May 2020, and the motion in that case notes he started the case with three defense attorneys. All three withdrew before the year was out. By 2021, a fourth attorney had left the case. After a fifth attorney came on that same summer, the court granted Moore's motion seeking to modify his bond to allow him to conduct business out of state. The court ordered that he note the reason for his trip, and supply the dates and addresses regarding his travel.
But in February 2022, the commonwealth sought to have Moore's bond revoked in the perjury case after he was charged in the federal tax case, and also because he allegedly violated his bond by leaving the state without notifying the court, the motion said. But Moore again switched attorneys, this time hiring Terry Kilgore, an attorney and state delegate who "immediately invoked the statutory right to a continuance for matters falling within 30 days of a general assembly session." The case was continued and Moore's bond was not revoked.
Amina Matheny-Willard, Moore's seventh attorney in the Augusta County perjury case, joined Kilgore on the defense team that same summer, court records show. The day before a June 2022 trial was set to start, a 100-page motion was filed by the defense, prompting another continuance until March 2023 when Kilgore again used his statutory right to postpone.
"On March 16, 2023, the Court issued a letter opinion lamenting the fact that this was at least the second time the matter had been continued using the legislative privilege, and that each time it had been invoked at the last minute, after extensive motions had been argued," Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Martin noted in the motion.
After the plea deal in the perjury case was reached, Moore spoke with a representative from the Augusta County Litter Control program and was provided with a document showing him when and where to go to collect trash, according to the motion. On the morning of Halloween, Moore called the litter program and asked if someone could accompany him. His request was denied and he didn't show.
On its social media page, the program noted there would be no litter pickup during Thanksgiving weekend. However, on Nov. 24 a litter representative still went to the meeting point to inform any participants who showed up that it was canceled. For the first time, Moore happened to appear. He was sent home.
"He told the representative that our program could use a lobbyist, and that Mr. Kilgore's son is a lobbyist," Martin said in the court filing.
In the motion, Martin said even if Moore had been allowed to pick up litter on the 24th and 25th, as well as Dec. 1, he still would have been 16 hours short of the required 40 hours the plea deal required. "This, of course, is giving the defendant the benefit of doubt that he was sincerely there to pick up litter, and was somehow unaware that the program was not operating during that holiday weekend. It is far more likely that he was, in fact, aware, and had hoped that the program representative would not show up, so that he could simply claim he attempted to do his hours ... ," Martin said in the motion.
The prosecutor said Moore also recently claimed he'd contracted Covid, but Martin said in his filing that he's skeptical considering it couldn't be confirmed by a medical professional. "Mr. Moore's credibility, as someone with a 23-year history of criminal fraud, is exceptionally poor," Martin said.
According to Martin's motion, Moore has been convicted of fraud 11 times and charged with a total of 33 felonies in Virginia, not including his federal charges. In July, Moore was also convicted of forgery in Louisa County after he falsified a document indicating he'd completed an eight-hour shoplifting prevention course and an eight-hour bad check prevention class, the motion said. He was initially charged with perjury in that case.
Martin wants the judge to enter a finding of guilt in the perjury case, and to proceed with sentencing.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars missing
In the Augusta County theft case, Moore is accused of stealing $426,000 from Zachary Cruz, the brother of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter who killed 17 people in Florida in 2018. Moore's spouse, Nexus CEO Michael Donovan, is also charged in the theft case along with Timothy Shipe, a vice president at Nexus.
Shortly after the Florida mass shooting, police arrested Zachary Cruz for trespassing at the high school, according to an affidavit. Less than three months later, Donovan and Moore's company filed a lawsuit on behalf of Cruz in Broward County, Florida. In a 2019 court deposition held in Florida, Cruz described both Donovan and Moore as “a friend."
When asked how the couple became involved in his life, Cruz said it was to help with his case. “They gave me attorneys,” he said. Nexus often assists individuals in cases against the government. In the deposition, Cruz said he moved in with Donovan and Moore at their Fishersville home.
According to a second motion seeking Moore's arrest and to have his bond revoked, one of the conditions of his bond in the theft case was that he was not allowed to leave the state. The bond was temporarily amended once to allow him to attend a funeral in California in late 2022.
However, court records show that Moore traveled — a lot — while on bond.
Apparently a frequent poster on social media, court records show Moore posted pictures on Facebook from 14 different states while he was on bond, including Times Square in New York City, a Florida Hooters restaurant, Chicago, a beach or two, and Beverly Hills, California. He reportedly took 27 out-of-state trips, with some of the social media posts indicating they were work-related. In the second motion, Martin asked that Moore's bond be revoked in the theft case.
Moore is now a former executive at Nexus Services who once owned part of the company with Donovan. He is no longer an owner after Donovan acquired his 39% stake in February 2022, giving Moore's spouse 90% ownership and Nexus executive Evan Ajin the other 10%, a court filing shows. That same year, Donovan told The News Leader that Moore was no longer a vice president at the company.
Following his arrest Saturday, court records show Moore listed his income at $4,000 per month. He also said he owns a retail company, believed to be in Harrisonburg. From 2018 to August 2023, federal court records show Moore earned $1.5 million in salary.
Nexus Services Inc., through Libre by Nexus, helps people secure their release from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The company pulled in nearly a quarter-of-a-billion dollars between 2013 and 2022, according to federal court records.
But last summer, the former Verona campus for Nexus was auctioned off on the front steps of the Augusta County Courthouse for $3.4 million dollars after the property went into foreclosure.
In a pending federal lawsuit filed in 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — along with the states of Virginia, New York and Massachusetts — is seeking more than $800 million from Moore, Donovan and Ajin, Nexus Services Inc. and its subsidiary, Libre By Nexus. The company is accused of creating the impression that it pays cash for immigration bonds and that repayment from consumers was for the debt; presenting contracts in English for its mainly Spanish-speaking consumers; threatening clients; and using deceptive and abusive terms in its contracts, according to the lawsuit. For a few years, clients were also made to wear and pay for GPS ankle monitors.
In May, a federal judge found the trio in contempt for noncompliance in the lawsuit and ordered that default judgements be entered.
A Friday hearing for Moore has been scheduled in Augusta County Circuit Court, and it could determine whether he remains behind bars or not on the local charges.
Note: This article was updated to include that the prosecutor wants Moore sentenced on the perjury charge.
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: Richard Moore, a former Nexus executive, has been jailed
