A Cumberland County-based attorney was sentenced on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, to 14 months in prison for evading more than $250,000 in federal taxes on income generated from his law firm.
Douglas M. Long, 55, of Upper Deerfield, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Noel. L Hillman to an information charging him with one count of federal income tax evasion.
Judge Hillman imposed the sentence yesterday in Camden federal court and Republicans quickly pointed out that Long is a former Democratic freeholder and party chairman in Cumberland County.
Long, a former freeholder, quietly resigned as Cumberland County Democratic chairman in March 2018, after an ethics complaint filed against his law firm turned into a full-blown criminal investigation.
He had been previously reprimanded by the Supreme Court in 2016 and was forced out of an appointment as the Millville labor counsel.
According to U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig, documents filed in this case and statements made in court Long, managing partner of the Woodbury law firm Long & Marmero LLP, exercised primary control over the firm’s finances and supervised the firm’s bookkeeper from 2012 through 2015.
Many of Long’s personal expenses, including school tuition for his children, utilities and service fees for his personal residences, student loan payments for Long and his spouse, and other expenses, repeatedly were paid out of the law firm’s bank accounts.
Long directed the bookkeeper to falsely classify these payments as law firm business expenses to avoid his tax obligations.
He also falsely declared, under penalty of perjury, that his personal tax returns for tax years 2012 through 2015 were true and accurate when they were not.
Long ultimately concealed over $800,000 in personal income and evaded payment of over $250,000 in taxes owed to the IRS during tax years 2012 through 2015, including $368,000 in income and $120,000 in taxes for tax year 2014.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Hillman sentenced Long to three years of supervised release, fined him $10,000 and ordered him to pay restitution of $269,736.
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