Attorney and GOP Power Broker Has Champagne Taste but Claims a Beer Budget

George Gilmore, one of the most powerful figures for the GOP in New Jersey, was indicted in Jan. 2019 on six federal tax-related counts.

Gilmore, an attorney at the firm Gilmore & Monahan, which had $2 million in public contracts across the state in 2017, was charged with tax evasion, filing false tax returns, failing to collect, account for, and pay payroll taxes, and making false statements on a bank loan application. Gilmore is also chairman of the Orange County GOP and the county Board of Elections.

According to the indictment, while Gilmore owed the IRS more than $1.5 million in taxes, penalties and interest, rather than paying that debt he spent more than $2.5 million on personal expenses.  Between January 2014 and December 2016, Gilmore spent $380,000 to remodel his waterfront home in Toms River, including an infinity pool and cabana; $440,000 on antiques, artwork and collectables including animal tusks; $20,000 on a Steinway piano and $80,000 on model trains. In order to hide the personal expenses, Gilmore classified the payments as “shareholder loans.”  He did send one check to the IRS for $500,000 but that check bounced as there was less than $2,500 in the account.

Kevin Marino, Gilmore’s attorney said, “George Gilmore faithfully reported every penny of his income, and repeatedly expressed his intention to pay his taxes together with interest and penalties, freely conceded that he was unable to do so in a timely fashion, and share with the government the reasons why, and disclosed that he suffers from “hording disorder.”

Gilmore could face a potential decades-long prison sentence and fines between $250,000 and $1 million.