BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC with JOSH ROGERS | (Posted June 5, 2015 and updated June 18) Jeff Galloway, a longtime member of Community Board 1 and Battery Park City resident, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announced Thurs, June 4.
He pleaded guilty to criminal tax fraud in the third degree, which is a felony, and is expected to be sentenced on July 22. According to several media reports, he will have to pay $600,000 in taxes, serve three months in jail and resign from the bar.
Galloway, 61, failed to file New York State personal income tax returns for five years, between 2005 and 2010, while earning close to $1 million dollars per year as a partner at the law firm of Hughes Hubbard and Reed, according to the plea and court documents.
State Department of Taxation and Finance investigators approached Galloway in April 2012 about his failure to file. He claimed to investigators that he had indeed filed, but had entered the wrong Social Security number, according to prosecutors.
He then filed fraudulent tax returns with excessive deductions — “claiming the rent for all four of his residential apartments in Battery Park City and claiming monthly garage parking in Manhattan for two personal vehicles,” according to Vance’s office.
Galloway continued to lie about his tax returns and made false statements about the validity of the deductions, according to prosecutors.
He did not return a call for comment.
Galloway had been a C.B. 1 member for 12 years and was chairperson of the Planning Committee and a member of the Battery Park City Committee. Once a community board member is found guilty of felony, he or she is automatically removed. C.B. 1’s webpage no longer lists Galloway as a member and Michael Connolly is now listed as chairperson of the Planning Committee.
It is unclear if and when Galloway will be replaced. A spokesperson from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s office said in an email Tuesday, “We were fortunate this year to have many more qualified applicants than available community board seats. When a mid-term vacancy arises, the borough president’s office will look first to the pool of applicants who were found to be highly qualified after our screening and group interview process.”
At B.P.C. meetings, Galloway stressed community — most recently as the Battery Park City Authority has opened up the permit process for the ballfields, which has put local leagues’ field time in jeopardy. The leagues have helped create a community by connecting neighbors and their children to one another, Galloway said at the committee’s March meeting.
In the years after 9/11, Galloway was a leading voice on the community board on rebuilding efforts and took a particular interest in the memorial, writing a Downtown Express column in 2004 praising the selection of the “Reflecting Absence” design. He also headed the neighborhood dog owners group and often spoke out on behalf of his neighbors at Gateway Plaza, the largest B.P.C. housing which was built as middle income housing.
Catherine McVay Hughes, C.B.1’s chairperson, declined to comment.
Galloway was a partner at Hughes Hubbard and Reed for over 33 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. A person at the firm said “Jeff Galloway’s office” when answering the phone June 5, but then said he was no longer working there.
