NASCAR’s McClure reaches tax-fraud plea deal

By Staff Reports

Published: January 7, 2009

ABINGDON -- Larry McClure, co-founder of Abingdon-based Morgan-McClure Motorsports, has agreed to plead guilty to federal tax fraud.

A plea deal, signed by McClure on Monday and filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, states McClure will plead guilty to five counts, including making false statements to Internal Revenue Service investigators and filing false tax returns in 2002, 2003 and 2004, defense attorney Robert Wayne Austin said. In exchange, prosecutors will dismiss charges regarding painting invoices, Austin said.

McClure, through Austin, declined to comment.

General manager of his family's motorsports team for more than 25 years, McClure was indicted by a federal grand jury in October on charges of tax fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and violations of federal tax law.

Federal investigators said McClure's tax returns omitted several large payments from an unidentified Florida man who leased race cars from him.

If convicted on all of the charges in the indictments, McClure would have faced up to 115 years in federal prison and $2.75 million in fines.

"I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on what to expect or what I hope will be," Austin said yesterday.

Morgan-McClure team won 14 NASCAR Sprint Cup races and 13 pole positions over several decades. That record included three victories at the famed Daytona 500.

The team fell on hard times after losing its longtime sponsor of Kodak in 2003, and in January it halted operations and laid off 28 employees.

-- Media General News Service