Grand jury indicts St. Louis County man for tax fraud

ST. LOUIS – A federal grand jury, on Wednesday, indicted 49-year-old Richard Rief on 14 counts of failure to collect and pay over employment taxes and two counts of failure to file or pay tax.

According to the indictment, Richard Rief owned and operated Med Plus Staffing, LLC (MPS) and Rief Healthcare (RHC).  MPS was a healthcare staffing business and RHC was a hospice care business. Both businesses were based in St. Louis County.

Rief filed IRS forms reporting employment taxes due and owing but failed to pay those taxes, except when necessary to convince the IRS to delay a levy or accept an installment agreement. In total, Rief failed to pay more than $522,270 in employment taxes which had been withheld from employees’ paychecks and were due to the federal government. 

In addition, Rief failed to pay his individual income tax liability in 2015 and 2016, instead he chose to spend the money on lavish purchases. In 2017, while Rief faced back taxes for both his businesses and himself, he spent large sums of money on a 50-foot yacht, a Maserati and a hangar for his airplane. In total, during the calendar years alleged in the indictment, Rief failed to pay approximately $107,332 in individual taxes owed.

For each count of willful failure to collect or pay over tax, Rief faces no more than five years in prison and/or a fine of no more than $10,000.

For each count of willful failure to file return, supply information, or pay tax, Rief faces no more than one year in prison and/or a fine of no more than $25,000.

Charges set forth in the indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

The IRS investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Box handled the case.

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