Denardo
KINGSTON – A tip to the state comptroller’s office led to the arrest of a Wallkill Fire Department chairman on grand larceny charges.
Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright was joined by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli at the county courthouse in Kingston Monday, to announce the results of their investigation.
Fire Commission Chairman Michael Denardo, 38, of Wallkill, was arraigned early Monday before Town of Shawangunk Judge Michael Voss, pleading not guilty.
The defendant had turned himself in at Shawangunk Correction Facility, where he works as a corrections officer. Later he was released after posting $100,000 bail.
A Grand Jury is expected to indict Denardo for grand larceny, falsifying business records, and money laundering, all felonies. Five additional counts of misdemeanor tax fraud are also pending.
Denardo allegedly defrauded taxpayers by stealing $240,000 in fire district funds, by billing for bogus travel and other phony expenses, and writing blank checks out to his wife, who was not charged.
“It began with an outreach from a concerned citizen who felt something was wrong in this fire district, and it turns out they were right,” DiNapoli said. “We’ve had many situations all across the state, not just here in Ulster, where fire districts have been unfortunately the source of totally inadequate internal controls, one or two people controlling finances and not looking carefully, and then people get greedy, take advantage of the situation, think nobody is looking. This is a reminder that in fact, people are looking.”
The state comptroller’s office manages a fraud tip hotline at 888-OSC-4555 or email Investigations@osc.state.ny.us .
“We’re never going to go out and stop all fraud,” Carnright noted. “The message going forward is that if you’re in a fiduciary responsibility, and you breach that trust, be aware that we are going to try and find you. We don’t want to have any more people stealing money from the public,” he said.
