Ocean County attorney and Republican political boss George Gilmore arrived in federal court Tuesday to face charges he concealed money and avoided paying more than $1 million in taxes, instead using money from his law firm to fund lavish vacations, home renovations and a collection of rare items that ranged from model trains and animal tusks.

But his defense says the whole case is a misunderstanding: Gilmore, a partner and shareholder in the Toms River firm Gilmore & Monahan, had a pattern of paying his taxes late along with interest and penalty, but never meant to conceal his earnings.

As the Ocean County Republican chairman, Gilmore is among the most powerful party members in the state. GOP hopefuls have often arrived in statewide office by way of Ocean County, the reddest in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.

A federal grand jury in Trenton returned the six-count indictment in January. It alleges the 69-year-old from Toms River evaded tax payments between 2013 and 2015, while also filing fraudulent returns in 2013 and 2014. He also failed to hand over payroll taxes from his law firm for half of 2016, and lied on a loan application from a bank, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“When it came time to pay his federal income taxes, the defendant chose not to pay,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jihee G. Suh told the federal jury at U.S. District Court in Trenton during her opening argument. “Even though he could pay. And the defendant chose to lie to the IRS and act as if he couldn’t afford to pay. Not only will the evidence show the defendant had the money, the evidence will show that the defendant was spending it on everything else.”

Suh said Gilmore lied about how much he was making, using law firm money for personal expenses and labeling it as a shareholder loan. But that was income, she said, income that went unreported to the IRS.

Meanwhile, he burned through $2.5 million, spending $700,000 on mortgage and property payments, $300,000 on renovations, like an infinity pool, and $400,000 on collectibles, dropping some of that on a $20,000 Steinway piano, $80,000 on collectible trains and animal tusks.

While Gilmore did send the IRS nearly $500,000 for 2013 taxes, the check bounced, she said.

He is also accused of illegally omitting the tax debt from bank applications when he refinanced a mortgage loan with Ocean First Bank for $1.5 million in 2014. Using a cash-out provision, Gilmore allegedly directly collected and kept $572,000, but did not pay the taxes he owed.

By the end of 2016, prosecutors estimate, Gilmore owed the government more than $1.5 million with interest and penalties.

Gilmore’s attorney, Kevin Marino, told the jury late payments had been a regular part of his client’s tax record for years, but that he always paid, eventually, with complete interest and penalties. Those loans, he argued, were just that, and Gilmore had paid $7.8 million back into the firm, he said.

“Despite the money he spent on choo choo trains and copper drains, which he freely admits, he’s innocent,” he said during his opening argument. “He never intended to or did break the laws of the United States.”

Marino upheld Gilmore’s reputation in Toms River, describing him as a big-hearted family man, who led the law firm and had spent $400,000 to care for his ill mother-in-law, in addition to some of the lavish and frivolous expenses enumerated by Suh.

“He’s never even once had the whiff of political scandal touch him,” Marino said.

Marino said Gilmore’s check to the IRS bounced after a bank loan failed to come through on time, and that it was’t his attention to deceive the agency with a fraudulent payment. He said the case didn’t resemble a typical tax fraud one; there were no shady Swiss bank accounts, no properties placed in the names of others to conceal assets and spending.

He described Gilmore’s relationship with the IRS as “cordial," and said he had regular contact with representatives, seeing as he was consistently making late payments. Marino also said his client honestly told the IRS when he had money, when he did not and when he expected to have it to pay them.

“The case is not about, did he spent a lot of money, did he spent it without paying his taxes on time? Yes, he did. He certainly should’ve paid them on time," Marino said. “Subjecting yourself to interest and penalties [isn’t] evasion."

Judge Anne Thompson is presiding over the trial, which is expected to last between two and three weeks.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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