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Former Lewisboro Town Justice Marc Seedorf, a Carmel attorney, was sentenced in White Plains Federal Court to six months in prison following his guilty plea to tax evasion last December.
Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said that between 2009 through October 2019, Seedorf was a Town Justice for the Town of Lewisboro, and an Administrative Law Judge for Westchester County. He also received income from the private practice of law.
Strauss said that between 2005 and 2015, Seedorf did not file individual income tax returns, despite incurring a federal tax income liability of approximately $323,000 including interest and penalties between 2005 and 2008.
As a result of the income Seedorf earned from 2009 through 2013, he incurred a federal income tax liability of approximately $164,000, including interest and penalties.
In August 2012, Seedorf received a $1,524,116 when he settled a civil lawsuit, which was put into an attorney trust account to be disbursed to Seedorf at a later date.
In subsequent years, his attorneys were instructed to disburse to accounts other than his private bank account, including his law firm’s operating account, his law firm’s attorney trust account, and his brother-in-law’s personal account, in an effort 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.
From January 2010 through June 2013, the IRS attempted to collect Seedorf’s 2005 Through 2008 tax liability, including by mailing letters to Seedorf and requesting documents and records from Seedorf, who failed to provide any records to the IRS or make any payment toward Seedorf’s 2005 Through 2008 tax liability.
Seedorf also admitted to lying to an IRS Revenue Agent, never disclosing the 2012 law suit settlement or the existence of the more than $540,000 of settlement proceeds that remained in his law firm’s attorney trust account at that time.
In total, Seedorf caused the IRS to incur losses of more than $200,000, including penalties and interest.
“Marc Seedorf, a member of the judiciary and former Assistant District Attorney, knew well his obligations 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. For his admitted crime, Seedorf will now serve a six-month prison sentence and be compelled to pay his unpaid taxes.”
Seedorf, 64, of South Salem, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, and to pay a $55,000 fine on top of the $207,219 in restitution he’s already paid to the IRS.
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