Businessman bribed sheriff to become a deputy, have his gun rights restored, feds say

A Virginia businessman became an auxiliary deputy and had his gun rights restored — despite a prior felony conviction — by bribing a county sheriff, according to federal prosecutors.

Rick Tariq Rahim is the latest businessman to plead guilty in connection with the scheme involving former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who is accused of accepting thousands in bribes to support his reelection campaign, according to federal prosecutors.

Jenkins took more than $70,000 in cash payments and contributions from accused bribe payers in exchange for auxiliary deputy appointments since at least 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia announced in June, when he was indicted on federal charges.

He accepted the money from at least six people — including Rahim, two other Northern Virginia men and two FBI undercover FBI agents, according to prosecutors.

Rahim personally paid Jenkins $25,000 in cash, loaned him $17,500 for a home Jenkins was building and also donated a billboard and 200 custom knives toward Jenkins’ campaign, the U.S. attorney’s office said in an April 22 news release.

For the home loan, Rahim never asked Jenkins to pay him back “because he wanted to maintain a good relationship with Jenkins,” prosecutors said.

In May 2020, Rahim was sworn in as an auxiliary deputy sheriff for the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office and had his firearm rights restored months later, according to court documents.

Last summer, Jenkins, Rahim, James Metcalf and Fairfax attorney Fredric Gumbinner were charged with a conspiracy to exchange bribes for law enforcement badges and credentials and other related charges, prosecutors said, McClatchy News previously reported.

Rahim, 60, of Great Falls, pleaded guilty on April 22 to one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and honest services mail fraud and one count of honest services mail fraud, the attorney’s office said.

Metcalf and Gumbinner have since pleaded guilty to one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, according to prosecutors.

As for Jenkins, his jury trial is scheduled to begin on July 22, court records show. The sheriff lost his reelection campaign in November, the Culpeper Star-Exponent reported.

“The badges and guns worn by the men and women who swear an oath to protect and serve the Commonwealth of Virginia is not for sale and those who attempt to buy that honor will be held to account,” U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said in a statement.

Attorneys representing Rahim, Jenkins, Metcalf and Gumbinner didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News on April 23.

The July 2019 meeting with the sheriff

In late 2019, Rahim was asked whether he wanted to “support” Jenkins by another businessman who was an auxiliary deputy and wasn’t named by prosecutors, according to the attorney’s office.

“The businessman told Rahim that Jenkins would probably agree to make Rahim an auxiliary deputy in exchange for his support,” prosecutors said in the release.

Rahim, who had no law enforcement or military experience and was banned from owning a gun after he was convicted of a felony, met with Jenkins at the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office on July 31, 2019, according to prosecutors.

Jenkins promised to help Rahim restore his firearm rights and become an auxiliary deputy sheriff — and Rahim agreed he’d “provide things of value” to Jenkins, according to a statement of facts.

While sheriff, Jenkins is accused letting accused bribe payers know they could carry a concealed firearm in any U.S. state after being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy.

The bribes

Some point after Rahim’s meeting with Jenkins, he gave him a manila envelope containing $15,000 in cash while inside Jenkins’ truck parked outside the sheriff’s office, according to the statement of facts.

Months later, in September 2019, they dined together at a steakhouse, where Rahim handed Jenkins another envelope with $10,000 cash, the statement of facts says.

He became an auxiliary deputy sheriff months later on May 27, 2020, prosecutors said.

To help Rahim restore his firearm rights, Jenkins is accused of promising to “pressure and advise the Circuit Court judge” and other officials to approve his petition to restore those rights, the statement of facts says.

In order to file the petition in Culpeper County, Rahim had to live there — but he wasn’t a resident, according to the statement of facts.

The sheriff’s solution for this was to arrange a “purported lease agreement” for a property within the county for Rahim so that he could falsely claim he lived there, the statement of facts says.

Afterward, his firearm rights were restored in August 2020 and the next month, he was granted a concealed carry permit, the court filing says.

In December 2020, Rahim received a sheriff’s office ID badge that described him as a “helicopter pilot,” according to prosecutors.

Rahim’s legal woes extend beyond the bribery scheme.

On March 15, he pleaded guilty to failing to pay over to the IRS the taxes withheld from his employees’ paychecks in a separate case in the Eastern District of Virginia, federal prosecutors announced that day.

Attorneys representing Rahim in that case didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

Culpeper County is about a 70-mile drive southwest of Washington, D.C.

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