Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, who was previously convicted over his failure to give the federal government withheld payroll taxes, is apparently running headfirst into another major legal storm.
In 2020, Gilmore was sentenced to prison for his conviction on two counts of failing to pay over payroll taxes withheld from employees to the IRS and one count of making false statements on a bank loan application submitted to Ocean First Bank.
Gilmore was ultimately pardoned by President Donald Trump just before he left the presidency in 2021.
Now, documents obtained by Lakewood Alerts show that since January, state liens of more than $500,000 have been placed against Gilmore, apparently for the same reason he was convicted of federal tax crimes in 2019: failure to hand over payroll taxes.
The documents, which can be seen below, show that Gilmore was slapped with state liens in February, April, and July, over debts he owes to the state government. In sum, the debts Gilmore owed over which the liens were placed is an eye-popping $515,554.96.
Sources tell Lakewood Alerts that state prosecutors are moving forward in their deliberations over whether to charge the powerful Ocean County political boss with new crimes. Notably, if he were to face new criminal charges, Gilmore would be unable to be pardoned even if Donald Trump returned to the presidency, as he would not have the power to absolve state crimes.
According to court documents filed in his previous case:
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. Because he exercised significant control over the law 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 Nov. 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 Jan. 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.
Interesting. Will Ned Thomson call for Gilmore to resign?….