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11 city brokers face tax evasion charges
Ten veteran New York City residential real estate brokers and one commercial broker face charges of tax evasion by the Albany County District Attorney.
The most notable broker, as reported by the Post, is Brown Harris Stevens’ Kathy Sloane, 62. The senior vice president and managing director is one of the brokerage’s top producers, and claims on her company Web page to have brokered more than $200 million in sales in 2007 alone. Sloane, working out of the 445 Park Avenue office, has handled sales for the Clintons and was involved in the sale of Jackie Onassis’s apartment.
Four New York City defendants work for the Corcoran Group, two in the same 660 Madison Avenue office. Dennis Hughes, 58, a senior vice president and associate broker, was a member of Corcoran’s multi-million dollar club in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Another member of the multi-million dollar club, Gabriel Bedoya, 50, is a vice president and associate broker with a real estate investment firm in addition to his Corcoran business.
The other two Corcoran brokers work in Brooklyn. Miriam Sirota, 37, is a senior vice
president and associate broker based in the firm’s new Williamsburg
office at 241 Bedford Avenue. She says on her Web page that she is
“donned the ‘Queen of the East Village’ and the ‘Baroness of Bed-Stuy.'” Patrick Brennan, 39,
is a senior associate broker at the 125 Seventh Avenue office in Park
Slope. He has also bought, renovated and sold several Brooklyn
properties, his Web page indicates.
The DA’s office said the brokers are part of a group of 31 real estate professionals who allegedly failed to report a total of more than $13 million in income and allegedly evaded more than $650,000 in state income taxes.
Real estate agents, as independent contractors, are responsible for filing their own personal income taxes. Twenty-nine of the 31 face felony charges for failing to file returns for at least three consecutive tax years, and two will be charged with a misdemeanor for failing to file in a single tax year or non-consecutive years.
Until the city 11 brokers are arraigned next Thursday, the DA’s office said it would not release the specific charges against each broker or how much each allegedly owes.
If convicted, brokers charged with felonies could serve as much as four years in a state prison. Misdemeanor charges could lead to prison sentences of up to a year.
Another defendant from Brown Harris Stevens is Scott Moore, 51, referred to by the district attorney as Gerald Scott Moore, a senior vice president in the 1926 Broadway office on the Upper West Side. Moore, who has homes in the Flatiron District and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been in the business for nearly a decade.
Sotheby’s International Realty’s Camille McKinley, 46, is another alleged tax evader. McKinley works out of the office at 379 West Broadway in Soho. She joined the company as an associate broker in 2000.
McKinley said of the charges: “It is my understanding that consideration was being given to exclude me from this group … the status is that while there was an oversight, and delay — due to issues with my previous accountant — all of my returns are completely up to date, filed, and fully paid in years where there were taxes due. There are years where I was in fact owed a refund.”
A Warburg Realty Partnership associate broker, Joseph Carris, 77, is also allegedly delinquent. Carris has been in the business for 25 years and at Warburg since 1992. He is based at 969 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side.
An office manager at Coldwell Banker De Simone Realty in Staten Island also made the list of defendants. Sarah Brady, 61, has been in the business for 15 years.
The city’s lone commercial broker who faces charges is Richard Brickell, 47, of Joseph P. Day Realty Corporation at 9 East 40th Street. Brickell is a vice president at the company, which does commercial leasing, property management, real estate analysis and investment sales.
The affiliation of another real estate pro on the list, Brooklyn-based Solomon Knopf, 50, could not be immediately determined.
Only McKinley responded to requests for comment.