United States v. Richard Brasser

── United States v. Richard Brasser ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date: May 28, 2026 Category: General USCA4 Appeal: 25-4165 Doc: 52 Filed: 05/28/2026 Pg: 1 of 22 PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 25-4140 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. GREGORY GENTNER, Defendant – Appellant. No. 25-4165 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. RICHARD BRASSER, Defendant – Appellant. Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Charlotte. Max O. Cogburn, Jr., District Judge. (3:23-cr-00006-MOC-SCR-2; 3:23-cr- 00006-MOC-SCR-1) Argued: March 20, 2026 Decided: May 28, 2026 USCA4 Appeal: 25-4165 Doc: 52 Filed: 05/28/2026 Pg: 2 of 22 Before KING, WYNN, and RUSHING, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by published opinion. Judge King wrote the opinion, in which Judge Wynn and Judge Rushing joined. ARGUED: Eric Jason Foster, LAW OFFICE OF RICK FOSTER, Asheville, North Carolina; Juan Chardiet, McLean, Virginia, for Appellants. Jason Poole, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: S. Robert Lyons, Katie Bagley, Joseph B. Syverson, Tax Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C.; Russ Ferguson, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee. 2 USCA4 Appeal: 25-4165 Doc: 52 Filed: 05/28/2026 Pg: 3 of 22 KING, Circuit Judge: Defendants Gregory Gentner and Richard Brasser (collectively, the “defendants”) were each convicted by a jury in the Western District of North Carolina in 2024 for five separate felony offenses of failing to pay over to the federal Treasury tax money withheld from employee wages, commonly known as trust-fund taxes, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7202. 1 On appeal, the defendants challenge various aspects of the district court’s underlying proceedings, as well as the court’s denial of their motion for a new trial. As explained herein, because we are satisfied to reject each of the defendants’ appellate contentions, we affirm the criminal judgments. I. A. 1. As background, when an employer pays the earnings of its employees, the employer is required by law to withhold certain taxes from the employees’ wages. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 3402, 3102. The employer is obligated to then pay over those withheld taxes of its employees to the federal government. Id. Because employers pay over those taxes to the 1 Section 7202 of Title 26 of the United States Code, which underlies each of the convictions challenged herein, provides, in relevant part, that “[a]ny person required under this title to collect . . . and pay over any tax imposed . . . who willfully fails to . . . pay over such tax shall . . . be guilty of a felony[.]” Per the Internal Revenue Code, such taxes are held in “trust for the United States” until the employer makes a federal tax payment of the withheld funds. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 7501(a), 3102, 3402. 3 USCA4 Appeal: 25-4165 Doc: 52 Filed: 05/2