NEW CITY – A former Spring Valley village trustee was convicted after a bench trial on municipal corruption charges.
Vilair Fonvil, 54, of West Orange, New Jersey, was found guilty of corrupting the government, grand larceny as a crime of public corruption, money laundering, and receiving reward for official misconduct, all as felonies.
While serving on the Spring Valley Board of Trustees, Fonvil stole $11,000 from over $24,000 in financing the trustees approved for the 2016 summer camp program.
The village board, at the urging of Fonvil, passed a resolution in June 2016 authorizing the payment of $24,225 to Jermika Depas for coordinating the transportation of Spring Valley children to summer camps in the Town of Ramapo.
The contract, assembled by Fonvil and signed by Fonvil on behalf of the village, called for Depas to hire six bus monitors to supervise the children.
Fonvil and Depas hired only three monitors.
Fonvil was involved in the day-to-day operations of the program and was solely responsible for paying the three monitors. The monitors were paid in cash and were never issued W2 forms.
Days into the camp program, the two men stopped using the bus company that was being paid directly by the village in transport the children.
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