Fmr. RI House Chair Gallison to Plead Guilty to $677K Fraud

Raymond E. Gallison, Jr., 64, of Bristol, R.I., a former chairman of the Rhode Island House Finance Committee, is going down in flames. According to federal court documents filed today in Providence, Gallison has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and multiple tax charges tied to a sprawling scheme that looted over $677,000 from vulnerable victims and public coffers.

As executor of a deceased Barrington, R.I. resident’s estate, Gallison didn’t protect the assets—he plundered them. Court filings reveal he stole cash, checks, stocks, and real property valued at $677,957.06. He used the dead man’s name and Social Security number to liquidate stocks, then funneled the money into his own bank accounts. It wasn’t oversight—it was cold-blooded theft.

The corruption didn’t stop there. Gallison, listed as Assistant Director of Alternative Education Programming (AEP), a nonprofit funded with public money, filed a false tax document claiming $77,957 was spent to help 47 students from 2012 to 2013. The truth? AEP paid just $3,137.29 for two students. The rest—$64,575—was funneled to Gallison and an accomplice as wages and consulting fees for work never done.

He also betrayed his role as trustee of a Special Needs Trust set up for a disabled individual. Gallison wrote an $8,900 check from the trust to AEP, then kicked $8,800 of it to the Community College of Rhode Island to cover a personal bill. The trust was meant to protect a vulnerable person’s future. Gallison used it as his personal ATM.

On his tax returns, Gallison played the invisible man. He failed to report $622,286.17 in income on joint IRS filings for 2012 and 2013. As a result, he stiffed the government on $226,332.31 in taxes. Every lie, every forged document, every siphoned dollar was part of a calculated effort to enrich himself while wearing the badge of public service.

Gallison is staring down a minimum of two years in federal prison under the terms of his plea agreement. U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announced the charges, which include four counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, aiding in the filing of a false tax return, and two counts of filing a false tax return. An information is not a conviction—but the evidence, laid bare in court filings, tells a damning story of betrayal from a man once trusted to lead.