Former Moody’s lawyer John Goggins of Chatham failed to file tax returns

John Goggins, 63, a resident of Chatham and former general counsel for Moody’s, a leading credit rating agency, on Friday, April 26, 2024, admitted to willfully failing to file federal income tax returns for the years 2018 through 2021.

Goggins appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa in Newark federal court on April 25, 2024, where he pleaded guilty to a four-count information charging him with the said tax offenses.

According to court documents, Goggins, who served as senior vice president and general counsel for Moody’s, earned a total gross income of $54 million during the four-year period from wages, stock awards, stock options, interest, dividends, and stock sales.

However, Goggins, a registered Republican who resides in a million-dollar home at 131 Ormont Road in Chatham, failed to fulfill his obligation of filing federal income tax returns for those years.

The charges against Goggins carry a maximum potential penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each count. Sentencing is scheduled for September 6, 2024.

In a statement released by his attorney, Christopher Ferguson, Goggins expressed regret and accepted full responsibility for his actions.

Ferguson emphasized that the matter was personal and unrelated to Goggins’s professional responsibilities at Moody’s. Goggins retired from Moody’s in September, and it remains unclear whether the company was aware of the investigation against him.

A spokesperson for Moody’s reiterated that the charges against Goggins were not connected to his tenure at the company. Goggins had served at Moody’s for over two decades before retiring, and he was succeeded by Richard Steele as general counsel.

Goggins retired in September, after almost two and a half decades with the New York City-based company, 23 of them as legal chief. He joined the rating agency and risk-assessment firm in 1999 as vice president and associate general counsel and became legal chief the next year.

Ferguson noted that Goggins has paid $3.2 million in outstanding taxes, interest, and penalties related to his misdemeanor offenses and is looking forward to moving past this situation.

Before his tenure at Moody’s, Goggins had worked as counsel at Dow Jones and had a background in private practice.