Lewisboro Town Justice Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion

LEWISBORO, NY — A northern Westchester town justice has admitted that he did not pay taxes for several years. Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Marc A. Seedorf, a town justice for Lewisboro, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of tax evasion.

Berman said, for years, Seedorf flouted his obligations to file tax returns and pay taxes.

"This was conduct that would be shameful for anyone, and all the more so from an attorney and a member of the judiciary," he said. "Now Seedorf awaits sentencing for his crime."

According to prosecutors, Seedorf did not file federal income tax returns for the tax years 2005 through 2015, despite being required to do so.

As a result of the income Seedorf earned from 2005 through 2008, he incurred a federal income tax liability of about $323,000, including interest and penalties.

From 2009 through 2013, Seedorf incurred a federal income tax liability of about $164,000.

In early August 2012, according to authorities, Seedorf received more than $1.5 million in connection with the settlement of a civil lawsuit. At his request, the law firm that represented Seedorf in the lawsuit deposited the settlement proceeds into its attorney trust account, including his law firm's operating account, his law firm's attorney trust account and his brother-in-law's personal account in order to disguise the source of funds he used to make payments to the IRS and other creditors, and the existence of the remainder of the settlement proceeds.

The IRS attempted to collect Seedorf's 2005-2008 tax liability from January 2010 through June 2013 by mailing letters and requesting documents from him. Prosecutors said he failed to provide any records to the IRS or make any payment toward his tax liability.

In June 2013, the IRS initiated a process to place a levy on an investment account Seedorf held and he instructed the law firm that represented him in the lawsuit to wire $400,000 of the settlement to his own law firm's attorney trust account. He then used that to pay his outstanding tax liability for 2005 through 2008.

IRS officials said, in the course of a conversation, Seedorf falsely stated he had borrowed the funds from his own law firm's trust account.

During a December 2014 interview with an IRS agent, Seedorf was asked whether he had received any non-taxable income during the period from 2009 through 2013. He did not disclose the 2012 lawsuit settlement or the existence of the more than $540,000 proceeds that were left in the law firm's attorney trust account at that time.

Tax evasion carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Seedorf is scheduled to be sentenced March 24.

According to a spokesman for the state's Office of Court Administration, effective immediately, all judicial matters pending before Seedorf will be reassigned to other designated judges by the deputy chief administrative judge for courts outside of New York City.

No additional judicial matters will be assigned to Seedorf, spokesman Lucian Chalfen said.

Patch reached out to the Town of Lewisboro supervisor for a comment, but nothing was immediately received.

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