Charlotte Tech Entrepreneur Appeals DOJ Conviction in Controversial Tax Case, Alleging Conspiracy

Charlotte, North Carolina – In a chilling and unprecedented escalation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has unleashed a ferocious assault on Richard Brasser, a devoted Charlotte father of four, renowned tech entrepreneur, charitable community leader, and former Boston Consulting Group partner – with no criminal history – swapping two local North Carolina attorneys for a team of four high powered Washington D.C. lawyers, in order to prosecute an appeal on a minor tax case that has been resolved, according to his attorneys.

Key points of the case:

• Not knowing his company rFactr was being purposely undermined, CEO Richard Brasser fought to save it, injecting his own money, forgoing his salary, personally paying employee health insurance, and using his family home as a guarantee. During this time, a suspicious house fire left his family homeless, after they barely escaped alive.
• Discovering a well-intended employee held back on submitting payroll taxes while making efforts to manage rFactr’s finances, Brasser entered the IRS’ Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP), which allows participants to avoid prosecution, fully repaying the company’s $558,010 tax debt by 2021, with interest.
• Brasser discovers rFactr was being intentionally compromised.
• In a civil suit, Brasser claimed rFactr was being sabotaged by an investor and his wife, Charlotte, NC, high society couple Chris & Caroline McDowell, in their attempt to take over the company. Caroline McDowell allegedly used multiple fake aliases, listened in on confidential board meetings, and gave false statements to law enforcement.
• Brasser filed a civil suit against the McDowells.
• Shortly afterwards, Charlotte DOJ prosecutor Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) Caryn Finley – in what Brasser’s attorneys say was an illegal attempt to influence the civil suit – filed a criminal case against Brasser for the taxes he had already paid. His attorneys also claim that Finley targeted Brasser’s suffering family members, who had nothing to do with the case.
• It is unprecedented that the DOJ violated the terms of the IRS’ Voluntary Disclosure Program, and it remains unclear why Finley was allowed to prosecute.
• Then, as soon as Brasser was indicted, he was forced to drop his legal counsel – McGuireWoods – after they suddenly quadrupled their previously agreed upon fees. It was later discovered, Charlotte DOJ prosecutor Daniel Ryan’s wife – Erin Pritchard Ryan – works at McGuireWoods, raising major concerns as to whether the DOJ conspired to violate Brasser’s 6th Amendment rights to an attorney & a fair trial.
• A jury cleared Brasser of all the major fraud & evasion charges in 2024.
• Finley only secured a conviction on minor technicalities, which Brasser is now appealing.

“Richard Brasser did everything right once he discovered his company’s payroll taxes were behind and should not have been prosecuted, let alone sentenced to prison” says attorney Juan Chardiet “In all my years of jurisprudence I’ve never seen the DOJ use such firepower on a small case like this that’s already been resolved.”

“The DOJ in Charlotte is a cesspool, and instead of admitting wrongdoing, Washington is now scrambling to bury its prosecutors’ obviously unethical meddling and questionable relationships there.” A source close to the case says. “I’m sure they’re hiding the truth of the Brasser case from the new US Attorney as well as (Attorney General) Pam Bondi.”

CASE INFORMATION
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA – CHARLOTTE
United States v. Brasser
Case No 3:23-CR-6-MOC

Mecklenburg County Civil Case
rFactr Inc. v. McDowell
Case No. 2018CVS12299