Former North Hempstead Democratic Party Chairman Gerard Terry of Roslyn Heights pleaded guilty in county court to one count of tax fraud on Monday, one of the many charges filed against him.
Terry pleaded guilty in county court to a count of criminal tax fraud and failing to pay $3,000 in taxes, a district attorney’s office spokeswoman said.
The former chairman has been under federal and state investigation since last year. He was charged with felony tax fraud for allegedly omitting income from his 2013, 2014 and 2015 state tax returns, as well as three counts of offering a false instrument.
Terry was an influential political leader, working as an attorney for eight municipalities – including Nassau County, the Town of North Hempstead, Village of Manorhaven and various others – as well as the chairman of North Hempstead’s Democratic Party.
“It was the taxpayers who gave Gerard Terry most of his business, so his failure to pay his own share in taxes is all the more outrageous,” District Attorney Madeline Singas said.”We expect those who do business with our governments to follow the law and play by the rules, and this case underscores the importance of enacting strong controls to ensure that government contractors are properly vetted and hired through an open, transparent, and competitive process.”
Prosecutors previously alleged that Terry, having failed to file income tax returns from 2000 to 2015, “willfully and intentionally” failed to pay nearly $1 million in federal income taxes between 2000 and 2017.
Singas said the investigation found that, based on income records and tax warrants, Terry earned between $200,000 and $300,000 annually since 2000 and regularly failed to voluntarily pay state income taxes.
Terry resigned from his chairman position in early 2016 and lost five of his six government contracts following revelations of his more than $1 million state and federal tax debt.
