Ron Devine and BK Racing: Guilty Plea, $31M Judgment Affirmed

Ron Devine, the former owner and president of NASCAR Cup Series team BK Racing, pleaded guilty in federal court on June 11, 2025 to failing to pay over hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll taxes withheld from his employees’ wages. The plea is the latest turn in a collapse that began with BK Racing’s 2018 bankruptcy and has produced a $31 million civil judgment, findings that Devine siphoned millions through family trusts and shell companies, and additional lawsuits that are still working through the courts.¹

The Federal Guilty Plea

A federal grand jury in Charlotte indicted Devine in October 2023 on four counts of failure to truthfully account for and pay over trust fund taxes. Prosecutors alleged that from 2012 through 2017, while Devine ran BK Racing, the team withheld Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from employee paychecks but never forwarded the money to the IRS. In the 2017 tax year alone, the shortfall exceeded $390,000.²

Court filings said Devine moved more than $2 million of that money to other businesses and entities he controlled instead of paying it to the government, with some of it going to BK Racing’s own rent, utilities, and vendor bills.³

On June 11, 2025, Devine appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and pleaded guilty to a single count of failure to truthfully account for and pay over trust fund taxes. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He was released on bond, and as of mid-2025 no sentencing date had been set. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Caryn Finley and Daniel Ryan handled the prosecution.¹ Devine was 68 at the time of the plea and lives in Burke, Virginia.

How BK Racing Collapsed

BK Racing, LLC was a North Carolina company that fielded cars in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2012 through 2018, typically running the No. 23 and No. 83 Toyotas with two NASCAR charters. The Devine family held between 76% and 80% of the team indirectly, through Virginia Racers Group, LLC. Ron Devine controlled day-to-day operations and finances; his wife, Brenda Devine, was corporate manager.⁴ The operation ran at the back of the field, relied on drivers who brought sponsorship money with them, and lost an estimated $44 million over its lifetime.⁵

On February 15, 2018, three days before the Daytona 500, BK Racing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing landed less than thirty minutes before a hearing in which Union Bank & Trust was seeking to appoint a receiver to seize the team’s assets, including its NASCAR charter, as collateral for unpaid loans.⁶ The team’s two largest creditors, Union Bank & Trust and the IRS, were owed a combined $11.9 million, and total liabilities exceeded $10 million spread across as many as 99 creditors.⁷

On March 30, 2018, the bankruptcy court appointed Matthew W. Smith as Chapter 11 Trustee, taking financial authority away from Devine. On August 23, 2018, Judge J. Craig Whitley approved the sale of BK Racing’s assets, including the charter, to Front Row Motorsports for $2.08 million. Devine tried to regain control through the auction and failed.⁸

The $31 Million Judgment

Once Smith had the books, he opened an adversary proceeding, Smith v. Devine (Case No. 20-03014), against Ron Devine, Brenda Devine, three irrevocable trusts named for the Devines’ children, and a network of Devine-controlled entities that included BRC Loans, BRC Real Estate Holdings, A&R Foods, Virginia Racers Group, Property Services, US Financial Companies, and the Devine Family Foundation.⁹

The trustee’s claims came in two parts. He alleged that Devine had siphoned roughly $6.4 million from BK Racing through hundreds of transfers structured to disguise that the money ultimately benefited the Devines personally. He also alleged that Devine had caused BK Racing to guarantee more than $11.9 million in debts owed by Devine himself and his other companies, which the filings called the “Ron Devine Debt Assumption Transactions.”⁴

Discovery Sanctions

The case never reached a trial on those merits. The bankruptcy court found that the Devine defendants repeatedly defied orders to produce documents and financial records. BK Racing’s books were in a “chaotic” state. Loans between Devine and his related entities were undocumented, interest-free, and unsupported by any contemporaneous paperwork. The email server for A&R Foods, which had been used to manage BK Racing, was reported as “missing or broken.”⁵

In May 2021 the trustee discovered a previously undisclosed “irrevocable self-settled spendthrift trust,” the BRBRC Trust, that had been formed in August 2018, shortly after the team’s assets were sold. Devine had written to the trustee in 2018 that “we’ll let the lawyers fight forever” if the charter were sold, and warned, “I will become your number 1 enemy.”⁵

On December 19, 2022, the bankruptcy court entered a default judgment of $31,094,099.89 against the Devines and their affiliated entities as a discovery sanction. The total combined the $11.9 million in debt-assumption transactions with the $6.4 million in fraudulent transfers trebled under the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, plus attorneys’ fees and costs.¹⁰

The court also pierced the corporate veil, finding that BK Racing and the Devine-controlled companies and trusts operated as “alter egos” and “mere instrumentalities” of the Devines, with “little to no attention paid to corporate formalities.” Ron and Brenda Devine, their family trusts, and their network of companies were held jointly and severally liable for the entire judgment.⁴

Fourth Circuit Affirmance

On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the judgment in full. The panel, in an opinion by District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. joined by Judges Wilkinson and Benjamin, found the sanctions were a “last-resort” response to a “pattern of bad faith, intentional withholding of material evidence, and repeated defiance of court orders,” and noted that the bankruptcy judge had shown “extraordinary patience.”⁴ How much of the $31 million has actually been collected is unclear from public records. Any funds recovered are earmarked to satisfy approved bankruptcy claims from banks, the IRS, and former BK Racing employees.¹⁰

Other Lawsuits Still Trailing Devine

Several related actions have grown out of the bankruptcy.

Front Row Motorsports, which bought a charter from BK Racing in 2016 for roughly $2 million, later learned the charter carried more than $9 million in undisclosed debt, and Union Bank & Trust claimed it as collateral. In April 2025, a federal judge approved Front Row’s suit seeking to recover from Devine and his former partner Michael DiSeveria the $2.1 million it had paid the bank to clear that claim, plus interest.¹¹

Trustee Smith also sued DiSeveria and his company Foxboro Financial Services (Case No. 20-03057) to recover $227,000 in transfers from BK Racing. DiSeveria, a friend of Devine’s from their Burger King franchisee days, had invested $380,000 for a 4% interest in BK Racing in 2012. The court found DiSeveria’s account of a later sale of that interest “generally credible,” rejecting the trustee’s claim that the sale document was forged.⁵

In a third action (Case No. 20-03007), Smith pursued Nancy O’Haro, Devine’s personal assistant and an A&R Foods employee, over at least $107,015 in transfers made to her in 2017 and 2018. O’Haro invoked the Fifth Amendment at a 2021 deposition, and a default judgment was entered against her in January 2024 after she failed to comply with discovery orders.¹²

What’s Next

Devine is awaiting a federal sentencing hearing on the payroll tax count while the civil judgment and the Front Row suit remain outstanding. The maximum exposure on the criminal charge is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, though the actual sentence will be set by the court.¹ The No. 23 car Devine once fielded did not return to the Cup Series until 23XI Racing debuted in 2021.¹³

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Former NASCAR Team Owner Pleads Guilty to Failure to Pay Payroll Taxes
2
WBTV. Former NASCAR Team Owner Accused of Not Paying Over $390K in Payroll Taxes
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Former NASCAR Team Owner Indicted on Federal Charges
4
FindLaw. Smith v. Devine
5
GovInfo. Smith v. DiSeveria, Case No. 20-03057
6
ESPN. Despite BK Racing Filing Bankruptcy, Owner Ron Devine Vows Team Will Run Full NASCAR Cup Season
7
Autoweek. NASCAR’s BK Racing Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
8
The Drive. Bankruptcy Judge Approves Sale of NASCAR Team BK Racing
9
Leagle. Smith v. Devine, 126 F.4th 331
10
CBS Sports. Ron Devine, Former NASCAR Cup Series Car Owner, Ordered to Pay $31M in Bankruptcy Proceedings
11
QC News. Former BK Racing Owner Pleads Guilty to Failure to Pay Payroll Taxes
12
GovInfo. Smith v. O’Haro, Case No. 20-03007
13
NASCAR.com. Car Number 23 — NASCAR History Through the Years