I-Team

By Maggie Mulvihill, I-Team Producer and Joe Bergantino, I-Team Reporter
BOSTON (WBZ) ― North Shore businessman Robert E. Lockwood lives in a $4 million oceanfront estate with a five-bedroom guest home in Beverly Farms - one of the tiniest towns in Massachusetts.

The Harvard graduate has Bentleys and Mercedes-Benzes in his driveway, five fireplaces and a waterside swimming pool and children's playhouse.

Gen3 Partners chairman James K. Sims owns over $19 million in real estate alone - with palatial homes on Beacon Hill, on the beach in Florida, next to Farm Neck Golf Course on Martha's Vineyard and in swank Carmel, California.
 
Prominent Boston realtor Maryann McLeod Crush drives a black Cadillac SUV, lives in a stunning yellow Victorian mansion near the beach in South Boston and runs one of the most successful realty businesses in the area.

Besides wealth, they have one other thing in common. They are all tax cheats.
"It's frustrating when someone so clearly seems to be just thumbing their nose at the state and at their obligations," said Navjeet Bal, state Commissioner of Revenue.

Overall, the money owed in back taxes to the state is a staggering $2.2 billion - more than enough to clear the current deficit with a million more left over as the state faces its worst fiscal crisis in five years.

In the city of Boston alone, there is a whopping $32 million owed by delinquent taxpayers with some bills dating back to the 1970's.
"We continue to work this to do everything we can," said Lisa C. Signori, chief financial officer for the city of Boston said.
"Some people choose not to pay their taxes on time," Signori said.

A two-month analysis of Massachusetts tax scofflaws from Boston to the Florida coast shows while most ordinary taxpayers pony up when the tax bill comes due – even in this difficult economy - some of our wealthiest neighbors repeatedly snub their nose at their tax obligations.

The money they don't pay is the same money used to repave their roads, remove their trash, shovel their streets, supply their ambulances and police their streets - among other basic services tax revenue underwrites.

"We all benefit from what the state offers us, whether its hospitals, roads, doctors . . . and we should all pay our fair share of that," said Bal.

In Boston, taxpayers fund nearly 60 percent of the city's $2 billion operating budget.

"When you look around the country . . . you can't find another city that is reliant as we are on property tax," Signori said.

The lengths some tax scofflaws go to avoid the tax bill can boggle the mind.

Sims's exquisite Beacon Hill home overlooking Boston Common was actually awarded to the city in December after he ignored repeated notices to pay his 2004 tax bill – which had ballooned to $263,000 with penalties and interest by last December.

He was also behind on his property taxes on his $6 million home on the Pacific Coast in California near Pebble Beach. That bill in December was $266,000 counting penalties and interest.

Sims has been a national finance committee co-chair for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who vowed to crack down on tax cheaters as governor of Massachusetts.

Even as he owed over a half-million in back taxes in two states, he and his wife doled out over $300,000 in campaign cash to mainly Republican candidates, including Romney.

Both tax bills were paid one day after the I-Team called Sims to question him about his delinquency. He has now issued an apology claiming he was not aware he was in arrears. He also resigned from the Romney campaign last week.

Lockwood has defaulted on repeated court appearances as the state continues to chase him for the millions in business and income taxes it claims he still owes from as far back as 1989.

With penalties and interest that bill is now $3.4 million.

Since that time he continued to live a life of luxury, his divorce records show – including trips to Paris, private schools for his children, a ski home in New Hampshire, housekeepers, chauffeurs and antique cars.

His money worries have dwarfed those of the regular taxpayer. During his divorce several years ago, hebattling his ex-wife over his collection of a collection of duck decoys and sterling silver flatware.

"The thing that is unfair is that he actually unlike a lot of people . . . has assets and he's still not meeting his obligations," Bal said.

The millions Lockwood owes alone could put more police officers on our streets, protect teacher jobs and improve investments in long-ignored cities and parks across the state.

No stranger to legal action, Lockwood spent time in federal prison following a 1999 conviction for conspiracy to commit securities fraud and has pleaded guilty in state court to tax evasion.

"He received a suspended sentence and he still hasn't paid," Bal said.

Neither Lockwood nor his attorney has responded to numerous requests for an interview.

Some tax bills date back decades, a problem officials said is often dragged out by complicated legal action.

That's the case with the biggest delinquent in Boston – Dorchester community activist Harold J. Cohen.

The city claims Cohen owes taxes for his brick warehouse on East Cottage since as far back as 1977. The bill has swelled to nearly $800,000 with penalties and interest.

Signori said complex state and federal legal action over the years has so far prevented the city from collecting the full debt.

Cohen declined to speak about the bill with the I-Team.

Other tax scofflaws confronted by the I-Team either immediately paid up or are now promising to.

At the beginning of January, wealthy developer Neil St. John "Ted" Raymond owed the city $566,284 from tax year 2006 for properties in downtown Boston.

Raymond, a Harvard and Yale-educated architect, has developed some of the priciest real estate in the city – including 21 Merchants Row near Faneuil Hall, Trinity Place and the Charlestown Navy Yard.

He lives in a $2 million home gabled mansion with seven fireplaces in Ipswich, with a swimming pool, tennis court and greenhouse. His home is near the Turner Hill estates which Raymond's company developed into a posh private country club complete with an 18-hole championship golf course.

He paid off part of his overdue tax bill on Jan. 24 and the remaining $400,000 within days of being contacted by the I-Team last week.

He declined a request for an interview.

But in a statement issued through his public relations advisors, the Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, he said a complex financing of Commonwealth Avenue property being developed by Raymond and four other partners had prevented him from paying the tax bill until now.

Crush has been repeatedly late paying her tax bills since 1989, racking up a dozen tax liens in Massachusetts Land Court.

Even as she was behind on her tax payments she was collecting antiques, renovating her home and breeding prize-winning Morgan horses.

At a time when South Boston real estate is among the hottest in the city, records show she is behind on $163,000 taxes for a slew of properties – including the glass-and-brick mansion that houses her realty firm – MCM Properties Inc.

Crush declined an interview request.

Her attorney, Glen Hannington, said she is planning to pay but would not say when. He said the current downturn in the housing market has affected Crush's ability to pay her bills.

"She'll do what she has to do and it will be taken care of," Hannington said. "You can't get blood from a stone."

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