Former RVA strip club owner Sam Moore to be released from jail Saturday

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - He was once Richmond's most infamous strip club owner. This week, Sam Moore gets out of prison.

He served six-and-a-half years for tax evasion and he once owned a landmark strip club in Shockoe Bottom: Club Velvet, known for its giant murals of Princess Diana, and even a controversial one of President Barack Obama.

Moore is scheduled to get out of jail this Saturday.

He's been serving his sentence at Fort Dix in New Jersey and has received some credit for time served during his trial in Richmond.

Moore recently wrote a letter to the judge who handled his case, indicating he plans to live in Virginia Beach when he gets out - if he can get the proper approval from a case manager.

"It is best that I don't go back to Richmond to live but rather start anew in another city where there won't be the negativity and unhealthy emotions that may prove unbearable to me," Moore wrote in his letter.

The former club owner was a very controversial figure in Richmond. Moore famously sported a tear drop tattoo under his eye following his 1998 acquittal of murder in a fatal stabbing during a street fight.

He opened the now-closed Club Velvet in Shockoe Bottom two years later. While running the club, Moore was convicted of having sex with a minor. The Feds built their tax evasion case from a raid on the club, discovering that Moore was making hundreds of thousands of dollars off dancers and customers but under-reporting his earnings to the IRS.

The judge at his trial scolded Moore, saying he tried to mess with the grand jury and, during his trial, attempted to pay witnesses and even asked them to lie.