Six airplanes were seized at a Maine airstrip by the federal government after the owner allegedly failed to pay $1.6 million in taxes.
The Internal Revenue Service raided a private airstrip on Dec. 16 in Eliot, and seized six planes along with the strip itself, according to a search warrant that was unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court of Maine in Portland.
The items were left in place and tagged with a notice of seizure, court records said. Logbooks and two sets of keys were removed from the facility.
The planes were seized from Thomas Shaughnessy, who has been “uncooperative” with the IRS as it attempts to collect the just over $1.6 million he owes from 2014, according to court records. The tax assessment was issued in 2019 and Shaughnessy has refused to pay since, the IRS said.
The problem with the IRS is being solved, Shaughnessy told the Bangor Daily News on Monday. The 2014 tax issues stem in part from a divorce; Shaughnessy said he thought it had previously been fixed.
The scale of the seizure is notable because private planes are rarely seized in Maine. Once seized, the IRS can sell those items at auction to cover taxes.
Shaughnessy shields assets, moves funds and uses “alter ego” corporations to hide money, the IRS said in the search warrant. He is a “long established figure in the automotive industry who buys and sells high-value classic sports cars, particularly Ferraris.”
He opened three new businesses in 2021 and 2022 with similar names but only filed an income report for one company, Shamrock Aviation, court records said. In that filing he listed a business partner as “Brother Shaughnessy” with a Social Security Number listed as 123-22-3344. The IRS has no record of anyone by that name and the number does not exist, according to court records.
The planes were at Seacoast Airfield, sometimes called Littlebrook Airpark, in Eliot. The private airstrip has 10 hangars, two of which have items from other owners, court records said.
The planes seized include a biplane from the 1930s or 40s, a two-seat Cessna and a six-seat Piper PA-28 Cherokee, court records said.
The IRS said there may be up to 16 planes and vehicles at the property, including a 1978 Fiat Abarth Coupe and a 1955 racing convertible. A Gulfstream, which is a luxury business jet, may have also been at the property.