A federal judge has ordered a court-appointed receiver and RLI Insurance Company to explain what has happened in the receivership over Nexus Services, Inc., more than two years after the receiver was told to report back within 120 days and never did.
On Friday, September 25, 2026, I called the chambers of Senior U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski and asked one of his law clerks where the Receiver’s report was. She told me the court could not discuss the particulars of any case. The following Tuesday, September 29, Judge Urbanski entered an order directing RLI and the receiver, Brian Burns, to file a status update on the receivership within 30 days. That deadline falls on Thursday, October 29, 2026.
The case, RLI Insurance Co. v. Nexus Services, Inc., No. 5:18-cv-066, has been on the Western District of Virginia’s Harrisonburg docket since 2018. RLI, a surety company based in Peoria, Illinois, issued 2,486 immigration bonds worth about $30 million between February 2016 and February 2017 at Nexus’s request. The bonds secured the release of immigrant detainees enrolled in the Libre by Nexus program. Under a written indemnity agreement, Nexus promised to cover RLI’s losses when bonds were breached and to post collateral to protect RLI against future losses.
RLI sued after Nexus fell behind on paying claims for breached bonds. In July 2018 the court ordered Nexus to open its books and records bearing on its financial condition. On July 3, 2020, Judge Urbanski granted RLI partial summary judgment, finding Nexus had materially breached the agreement, and he threw out Nexus’s counterclaims.
On October 23, 2020, the court entered a money judgment of $3,331,197.55 for RLI against Nexus Services, Inc., Libre by Nexus, Inc., and Homes by Nexus, Inc., most of it attorney’s fees and litigation costs. The judge separately ordered Nexus to deposit $2.4 million in collateral. Although Nexus had paid RLI nearly $4 million on breached bonds, the judge wrote that it “has strung RLI out over the past four years.” The Fourth Circuit affirmed on January 27, 2022.
Winning a judgment and collecting it are two different things. RLI served post-judgment discovery on Nexus in February 2021 and on related entities in March 2021 under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69. According to the court’s latest order, a variety of efforts to obtain that discovery were unsuccessful.
On March 5, 2024, Special Master Paul G. Beers recommended that Nexus be placed in receivership. RLI agreed on March 25, 2024, and asked the court to choose a receiver from a list of forensic accountants it had supplied. Nexus objected the same day.
On May 17, 2024, Judge Urbanski appointed Brian Burns, an independent forensic accountant with Forvis LLP, as receiver. The appointment was limited. Burns was to take possession of the books and records of Nexus and its related entities that RLI had requested and subpoenaed, including records held by Subversivo LLC that were available to Libre by Nexus under an administrative services agreement. He was directed to make sure RLI received timely and full access to those records.
The order required Burns to file a comprehensive status report within 120 days, which put the deadline in mid-September 2024. It also provided that the receivership would stay in place until Nexus and its related entities showed the court they had fully complied with their post-judgment discovery obligations.
No report was ever docketed. RLI, the party owed more than $3.3 million, has not filed anything in the case since the receiver was appointed.
The only activity in the next year came from Nexus’s side. On March 17, 2025, attorney Zachary Lawrence moved to withdraw as counsel for Nexus. Magistrate Judge Joel C. Hoppe denied the motion without prejudice, ruling that the corporate defendants must have legal representation while the receivership is in place. After that, the docket went quiet.
That silence is what prompted my call. A receivership is a court’s own tool, and the receiver answers to the judge. When a report ordered in May 2024 has not appeared by September 2026, the public is entitled to ask why.
The law clerk declined to discuss the case, which is standard practice for judicial chambers. Four days later, the court acted. The September 29 order recounts the history of the receivership, notes that no report has been docketed and that RLI has filed nothing since May 2024, and observes that “for whatever reason” nothing had been filed in the case since the May 2025 ruling on the withdrawal motion.
The order directs the clerk to send a copy to Burns at the Richmond office of Forvis Mazars LLP. It refers all matters concerning post-judgment discovery and the receivership to Magistrate Judge Hoppe. It also provides that if any further action requires a district judge, the case will be transferred to the next district judge under the court’s standing order on case assignment. Judge Urbanski signed the order as a senior judge.
Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the 30 days run from the day after the order was entered, which makes the status update due by tomorrow, October 29. Whether RLI and the receiver meet that deadline, and what the report says about Nexus’s records after more than two years in a receiver’s hands, will be on the public docket.