Former East Hampton Man Pleads Guilty to Tax Charges

The husband of a woman who owns a dilapidated summer home on Lake Pocotopaug in East Hampton has pleaded guilty to tax charges stemming from his wife’s alleged bank fraud scheme.

Gary J. Stocking, 45, of Naugatuck, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to three counts of failing to file a tax return, failure to supply information to tax officials and failure to pay federal income taxes.

Federal prosecutors say Stocking did not file tax returns on behalf of Equity Realty LLC, a company ran by his wife, Susan Curtis, and which authorities allege Curtis used to defraud Webster Bank of nearly $5 million.

Authorities allege Curtis used part of those funds in 2007 to purchase a waterfront home at 35 Day Point Road in East Hampton for $1 million.

Within a year of buying the home, Curtis and her husband also bought expensive boats and undertook a nearly $1 million renovation of the more than 3,000-square-foot Gambrel Colonial located in an affluent lakeside community.

Within months of starting that renovation work, however, she and her husband disappeared from the community and the home, partly gutted and devoid of siding and many of its windows, has sat untouched, deteriorating, ever since.

The federal government is now trying to seize the property in its case against Curtis,

49. She pleaded guilty about two months ago to federal charges that she swindled some $5 million from her former employer. One of those charges includes fraudulently applying for and obtaining a $649,000 mortgage from Bank of America for the Lake Pocotopaug home.

The bank is seeking to foreclose on the property.

The bank fraud charges each carry maximum terms of 30 years in prison. Curtis also pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns, each count carrying a maximum three-year prison term. She remains free on bond while she awaits sentencing.

Authorities say Stocking failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service the monies deposited into the Equity Realty LLC bank account he set up for his wife.  For the 2007, 2008 and 2009 tax years, Stocking, the government says, willfully failed to report approximately $1.91 million in income, causing a tax loss to the government of approximately $643,885.

As part of its case against Curtis and Stocking, the government is seeking the lake property, several automobiles, two Harley Davidson motorcycles, two boats and boat trailers, approximately $300,000 in artwork, about $100,000 in jewelry and a Steinway piano valued at more than $77,000.  The government also is seeking a money judgment in the amount of $7,002,589.85.