MID-HUDSON – Sharon Toney-Finch, 43, the founder of YIT Foundation, 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 on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Her story made national headlines and was covered by news-talk shows, fanning the flames of the migrant crisis. An investigation by Mid-Hudson News debunked the claims, causing several news agencies to retract their statements.
In the year since debunking her lies regarding displaced veterans, Mid-Hudson News investigated several other claims made by Toney-Finch and the details surrounding her YIT Foundation. The investigation unearthed details about donations made to Toney-Finch, her military service, and her victims. Toney-Finch is now accused of multiple federal charges including fraud and stolen valor.
Beginning on Monday, May 6, Mid-Hudson News will begin publishing “Web of Lies – The Fake Stories of Sharon Toney-Finch,” a series that sheds light on the reasons behind the federal charges against her, brought on in part by the original Mid-Hudson News reporting last year.
Mid-Hudson News debunked the hotel eviction story in May 2023 after speaking with the management of the Crossroads Hotel in the Town of Newburgh, which provided verifiable evidence to dispute financial claims made by Toney-Finch. Following the hotel story, Mid-Hudson News tracked down clients of a homeless shelter in Poughkeepsie who said they were paid by Toney-Finch to impersonate the veterans she claimed were evicted.
The FBI arrested Toney-Finch after an indictment charged her with defrauding military charities and the Veteran’s Administration and fraudulently claiming to have received a Purple Heart. 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 if convicted; theft of government funds, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted; stolen valor, which carries a maximum potential sentence of one year in prison if convicted; and altering military discharge paperwork, which carries a maximum potential sentence of one year in prison if convicted.
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.
