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A Great Falls businessman was sentenced March 14 to six years and six months in prison for tax crimes and a wire fraud scheme involving automated trading products.

Rick Tariq Rahim, 56, owned and operated several businesses, including laser tag facilities and an Amazon resale operation. From 2015 through 2021, he failed to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees’ wages and did not file the required quarterly employment tax returns.

Rahim had also filed two personal income tax returns between October 2010 and October 2012 that reported substantial tax bills, but he did not pay everything owed. When the IRS pursued the unpaid taxes, he submitted a false statement concealing valuable assets, including a helicopter, a Bentley, a Lamborghini and Great Falls real estate.

About two weeks later, Rahim transferred ownership of the Great Falls property to his wife. He used business accounts to cover personal costs, paying more than $889,000 toward mortgages and over $669,000 to buy or lease vehicles, including three Lamborghinis.

Rahim also withdrew more than $1.1 million in cash through transactions below $10,000 to avoid triggering bank currency reports. Despite receiving more than $34 million in gross income, he has not filed a personal income tax return since 2012.

His conduct caused the IRS losses of at least $4.4 million.

Trading Claims Concealed Heavy Losses

Rahim also defrauded customers who paid to use his automated trading bots or copy trades he promoted on Discord. He marketed services through websites including BotsforWealth, TradeAutomation, ProChartSignals, OptionCopier, CopyAndWin, SnipeAlgo and QQQtrade.

Customers paid subscription fees for bots, software and access to his purported trades. Rahim also sold a “lifetime membership” offering entry to a private Discord channel, access to some products and opportunities to attend his “in-office” trading days.

He personally traded stocks for at least two people and claimed, “We’ll hit home runs and make $500k+ per day very very often.” Instead, he lost more than $300,000 of their money within eight months.

Rahim promoted his products on TikTok, YouTube and Discord, presenting himself as extremely wealthy and displaying his large home, swimming pool and luxury vehicles. Online, he claimed that he could “beat the stock market every day” and promised exceptionally high returns.

But Rahim concealed losing trades and overstated his performance. From February 2021 through December 2022, he sustained more than $500,000 in trading losses rather than making the millions he claimed.

He also created at least 20 Discord profiles that he used to post approving emojis, likes and other expressions of excitement beneath his own messages. Rahim collected at least $1.397 million in subscription fees through the schemes.

Along with the prison term, Rahim agreed to forfeit more than $1.3 million. He must also pay restitution to the IRS and his investment-fraud victims.