A new task force targeting public corruption and financial crimes in Orange County, New York, was formed by Sheriff Paul Arteta and district attorney David Hoovler on March 1.
Hoovler told The Epoch Times that one catalyst for the task force is residential contractor fraud, which is expected to go up as building season nears.
“Being the victim of a violent crime is certainly a life-altering experience, but being defrauded of the funds to build your dream home or losing your small business to fraud can also negatively affect victims’ lives for years,” he said in a press release.
Aside from residential contractor fraud, the white-collar crime task force will also target public corruption, ethics violations, embezzlement, wage theft, and labor law violations.
At least one full-time criminal investigator from the district attorney’s office will join the task force, plus three full-time investigators from the sheriff’s office.
Since assuming office in January, Arteta has pulled back seven investigators from outside task forces to boost up county initiatives, including the new task force.
Task force members will assist police agencies across the county on financial crime investigations, which are often complex, labor-intensive, and beyond the capacity of small departments; they will also work for communities without a police force, Arteta told The Epoch Times.
Undersheriff Wilfredo Garcia told The Epoch Times that having a county task force will speed up financial crime investigations, as opposed to in the past when many were referred to the State Attorney General’s Office and had long turnaround times.
The new task force will work closely with the Goshen-based Hudson Valley Crimes Analysis Center, tackling an annual caseload of between 25 and 50, according to Hoovler.
Members are under the direct supervision of chief trial assistant district attorney Richard Moran and chief assistant district attorney Christopher Borek.
As of now, Newburgh is the only local police agency to sign up, contributing one detective to the task force. Several other agencies are considering, Hoovler said.
In 2022, the district attorney’s office prosecuted a major residential contractor fraud case out of Newburgh, resulting in the restitution of close to $350,000.
In the case, the contractor pleaded guilty to misusing funds for three home improvement projects in violation of New York State’s Lien Law and Penal law.
As for public corruption, a major case in 2021 involved three former officials of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency who allegedly took advantage of their public posts to benefit private companies in which they had a personal interest.
All three defendants pleaded guilty and paid more than $1 million dollars in restitution.
In 2021, the office also prosecuted a major embezzlement case that had financially hurt an engineering firm in the City of Middletown, rendering restitution of over $150,000.
The defendant, a payroll manager at the firm, admitted in court that she manipulated records to get undue payments; she was later sentenced to state prison.
