TRENTON, N.J. – A federal jury today convicted George Gilmore, a 69-year-old partner at an Ocean County law firm, of two counts of failing to pay over to the IRS payroll taxes withheld from the firm’s employees and one count of making false statements on a bank loan application submitted to Ocean First Bank N.A.
The verdicts were returned following a trial that began April 1, 2019, before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton federal court. According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial, Gilmore worked as an equity partner and shareholder at Gilmore & Monahan P.A., a law firm in Toms River, where he exercised primary control over the firm’s financial affairs.
Gilmore was responsible for withholding payroll taxes from the gross salary and wages of the law firm’s employees to cover individual income, Social Security and Medicare tax obligations. For the tax quarters ending March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2016, the law firm withheld tax payments from its employees’ checks, but Gilmore failed to pay over in full the payroll taxes due to the IRS.
Gilmore also submitted a loan application to Ocean First Bank containing false statements. On November 21, 2014, Gilmore reviewed, signed, and submitted to Ocean First Bank a Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) to obtain refinancing of a mortgage loan for $1.5 million with a ‘cash out’ provision that provided Gilmore would obtain cash from the loan.
On January 22, 2015, Gilmore submitted another URLA updating the initial application. Gilmore failed to disclose his outstanding 2013 tax liabilities and personal loans that he had obtained from others on the URLAs. Gilmore received $572,000 from the cash out portion of the loan.
The two counts of failing to collect, account for, and pay over payroll taxes each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. The count of loan application fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 23, 2019.
Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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