Former Lewisboro Justice Sentenced To Prison

LEWISBORO, NY — A former Westchester town justice was sentenced to prison for not paying taxes. Audrey Strauss, acting Umited State Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Marc A. Seedorf, a Carmel attorney, was sentenced in White Plains federal court Tuesday to six months in prison for tax evasion.

"Marc Seedorf, a member of the judiciary and former assistant district attorney, knew well his obligation under the law to file income tax returns and pay tax when due," Strauss said.

"Instead he chose to conceal assets and provide false information to the IRS," she said. "For his admitted crime, Seedorf will now serve a six-month prison sentence and be compelled to pay his unpaid taxes."

Prosecutors said Seedorf, 64, of South Salem, was a town justice for the town of Lewisboro and an administrative law judge for Westchester County during the relevant time period of 2009 through October 2019. He also received income from his private law practice.

Authorities said he did not file U.S. income tax returns for the years 2005 through 2015, despite being required to do so. As a result he incurred a federal income tax liability of about $323,000, including interest and penalties.

As a result of income Seedorf earned from 2009 through 2013, he incurred a federal tax liability of about $164,000, including interest and penalties.

In August 2012, he received more than $1.5 million from the settlement of a civil lawsuit. At Seedorf's request, the law firm that represented him in the suit deposited the settlement into its attorney trust account. In the following years, he instructed the law firm to disburse the funds to accounts other than his personal bank account, including his law firm's operating account, his law firm's attorney trust account and his brother-in-law's personal account.

That was to disguise the source of funds he used to make payments to the IRS and other creditors.

The IRS attempted to collect Seedorf's tax liability for 2005 through 2008 during the period from January 2010 to June 2013 by mailing letters to and requesting documents from Seedorf.

In June 2013, after the IRS placed a levy on an investment account held by Seedorf, he told the law firm to wire $400,000 of the settlement to his own law firm's trust account, from which he paid his outstanding 2005-2008 tax liability.

Seedorf told an IRS revenue officer that he had borrowed the funds from his own law firm's trust account, which was not true.

He also never disclosed the 2012 lawsuit settlement or the existence of more than $540,000 of settlement proceeds that remained in the law firm's trust account.

Officials said Seedorf caused the IRS to incur losses of more than $200,000, including penalties and interest.

In addition to the prison term, Seedorf was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay a fine in the amount of $55,000. He has already paid $207,219 in restitution to the IRS.

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