WHITE PLAINS – Sharon Toney-Finch, 43, the founder of YIT Foundation that gained national attention last year when she claimed that veterans in her care were evicted from a Town of Newburgh hotel to make way for migrants arriving in the Hudson Valley, was arrested by the FBI today (May 1, 2024). Her story was spread by elected officials and national news talk shows who used the claim to fan the flames of the migrant crisis. An investigation by Mid-Hudson News debunked the story, causing several politicians and news agencies to retract their statements.
On Wednesday, the US Attorney’s Office, along with the FBI announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Toney-Finch with defrauding military charities and the Veteran’s Administration and with fraudulently claiming to have received a Purple Heart. She is expected to be arraigned in White Plains federal court before Judge Judith McCarthy.
Toney-Finch, a resident of Newburgh, who also uses a Sullivan County address, is charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison; theft of government funds, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years in prison; stolen valor, which carries a maximum potential sentence of one year in prison; and altering military discharge paperwork, which carries a maximum potential sentence of one year in prison.
The prosecutors allege in the indictment that
- Between at least July 2019 through about September 2023, Toney-Finch engaged in a scheme to defraud donors to her charitable organization by falsely claiming that donation funds would be spent solely to support homeless military veterans, when in fact she spent the funds on personal expenses.
- She further falsely claimed that she was injured and survived a terrorist attack on a vehicle convoy in Iraq in or about March 2010 and that she is a Purple Heart recipient.
- Between at least March 2016 through the present, Toney-Finch knowingly obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability benefits from the VA by fraudulently representing that, during her military service in Iraq, she sustained combat-related injuries during a mortar attack in or about February 2010 and a vehicle rollover that occurred in or about March 2010.
- Between about August 2021 through the present, Toney-Finch has falsely claimed that she is a Purple Heart recipient in statements made to donors to her charitable organization, an application to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain a vanity license plate, and an application to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor to obtain a medallion and recognition on their website.
- Toney-Finch has also used, possessed, and exhibited a military discharge certificate that had been altered to reflect falsely that she is a Purple Heart recipient.
Toney-Finch did not return a Mid-Hudson News request for comment on Wednesday afternoon.
