Project director pleads guilty to tax evasion in connection with 2005 Riverside Properties sale

Barry Gross, who earlier this year was arrested on charges of grand larceny, falsifying business records, and filing a false personal tax return in connection with the 2005 sale of Riverside South Properties, has pleaded guilty to a tax evasion charge and is not expected to face prison time. Riverside South Properties was, at the time, the largest undeveloped parcel of land in Manhattan, extending from 58th to 72nd streets on the Hudson River. Gross, a project director for Hudson Waterfront Associates, helped broker the group’s $1.76 billion sale, with Donald Trump, to Extell Development and private equity firm Carlyle Group. Gross, who had faced up to seven years’ imprisonment, was alleged to have disguised his $1 million bonus for the transaction as a fee paid to a shell corporation in order to evade taxes. He will be sentenced Feb. 16 to a conditional discharge if he pays $119,000 to $135,000 in state and city taxes plus interest and penalties on the bonus. [Reuters]