Roy Cohn

After more than a quarter of a century of fighting with him about his taxes, the federal government filed suit Thursday against Roy M. Cohn to collect almost $7 million the Internal Revenue Service says it is owed. The civil suit seeks to seize and sell Cohn's Manhattan town house and his Connecticut estate, charging that the controversial lawyer and some of his law partners concealed his true ownership of the properties so tax liens couldn't be collected. "A lot of money is owed to the U.S.

Federal authorities charged today that lawyer Roy Cohn owes nearly $7 million in back taxes and moved to seize homes he owns in two states. Cohn, 58, was an aide to the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s hearings into alleged communist infiltration of the Army and later helped prosecute atomic spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. He also faces disbarment proceedings in an unrelated matter. In papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and in Bridgeport, Conn.

Once again, it was as much a New Year's Eve event as the annual dropping of the brightly lit ball at Times Square. Limousines double-parked outside the elegant Upper East Side six-story town house. The parade of tuxedos and ball gowns through the thick oak doors easily rivaled a Hollywood premier. Champagne flowed freely--and so did tears when the thin, haggard-looking 58-year-old host slowly rose to speak.

A lawyer's disciplinary committee has recommended disbarment for flamboyant attorney Roy Cohn, whose career has seen him at the side of people from Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy to reputed mobster Carmine Galante, the New York Daily News reported Friday. The committee, which found Cohn, 58, guilty of professional misconduct, will make its recommendation to the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court within one week, the report says.