25 Defendants Charged with Stealing over $275,000 in Welfare, Food Stamps, and Other Public Assistance Benefits
Goshen, NY – Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler, joined by Sheriff Carl DuBois, today announced that twenty-five defendants have been charged with felonies including Welfare Fraud and Grand Larceny for illegally obtaining over $275,000 in public assistance benefits administered through the Orange County Department of Social Services.
The enforcement action was the result of the collaborative efforts of the Orange County Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the Sheriff’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office. During the investigation of the cases, civil investigators of the SIU reviewed files of twenty-five public assistance benefit recipients suspected of fraud, interviewed those recipients, and forwarded cases to the District Attorney’s Office for further investigation. Investigators from the District Attorney’s Office interviewed many of the recipients before filing charges against them. The total amount allegedly stolen from the Orange County Department of Social Services in this enforcement action is $275,878.60.
This public benefits fraud enforcement action is the eighth one since District Attorney Hoovler took office. To date, 199 individuals have been charged with Welfare Fraud as a result of those enforcement actions. The total dollar amount of fraud involved in those cases exceeds is $2,952,673.80. To date, the County has been repaid approximately $594,612.44 by criminal defendants who were charged in the enforcement actions.
Since the actions began in June 2014, the Department of Social Services has also collected approximately $233,973.60 from recipients who voluntarily paid back benefits that they received but were not entitled to. Those recipients repaid those funds after being contacted by the Department of Social Services civil investigators, without any additional arrest or prosecutorial action by the Sheriff’s Office or the District Attorney’s Office. By comparison, in the three years prior to the first enforcement action, the Department of Social Services civil investigators only collected $48,165.061 from similarly situated recipients. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, only $12,127.31 was recovered as a result of welfare fraud prosecutions, and only four defendants were charged. Three prosecutions were brought in 2011, one was brought in 2012, and no prosecutions were brought in 2013 against those who defrauded the Orange County Department of Social Services.
The majority of the fraudulently obtained public benefits in this enforcement action were from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program [“SNAP”], which was commonly referred to as “Food Stamps”, although some of the fraud included Temporary Assistance [“TA”’], Public Assistance [“PA”] and Child Care benefits.
Defendants arrested in the most recent enforcement action include:
NAME
FRAUD AMOUNT
BENEFIT
AGE
ARREST CHARGES
PLACE OF RESIDENCE
Elizabeth Batista
$4,050
SNAP
59
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Cornwall
Reina Calix-Maldonado
$4,554
SNAP
42
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Newburgh
Lukisha Ceo
$4,189
SNAP
39
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Maybrook
Lynita Davis
$4,052
SNAP
25
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Middletown
Brigida Gorman
$6,920
SNAP
36
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Goshen
Angel Gowan-Walker
$5,677
SNAP
57
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Slate Hill
Candace Hall
$6,716
SNAP
46
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Middletown
Darnella Johnson
$8,109
SNAP
34
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Newburgh
Lana Jones (Brewer)
$3,008
SNAP
39
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Middletown
Roseline Laguerre
$3,713
SNAP
28
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Cornwall
Milciades Lerelbous
$7,666
SNAP
46
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Unknown
Rodline Marthone
$3,735.42
$282
TA
SNAP
30
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Newburgh
Matthew Mercado
$3,651.80
$5,707
PA
SNAP
36
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Newburgh
Emma Morales
$21,833
SNAP
58
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Goshen
Christopher Nieves
$12,480
SNAP
31
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Middletown
Tina Palermo
$12,733
SNAP
49
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Blooming Grove
Danielle Sanchez
$33,541.04
$5,115
PA
SNAP
34
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Pine Island
Tonya Sanders
$9,287
CHILD CARE
33
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Middletown
Deana Savoy
$24,883
SNAP
31
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Middletown
Jean Simeon
$11,277.60
$1,1966
TA
SNAP
66
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Newburgh
Wynette Smith
$8,776
SNAP
70
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Chester
Amanda Wagner
$20,938
$2,502
SNAP
HEAP
42
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Highland Mills
The District Attorney’s Office and Orange County Sheriff’s Office are asking for the public’s help in locating the following defendants who are currently wanted on arrest warrants:
NAME
TOTAL AMOUNT
BENEFIT
AGE
ARREST CHARGES
PLACE OF RESIDENCE
Mary Donoghue
$6,075
SNAP
68
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Ireland
Katrine Kronaj
$21,495.34
$11,036
PA
SNAP
74
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Albania
Pale Kronaj
$21,495.34
$11,036
PA
SNAP
84
Welfare Fraud 3
Grand Larceny 3
Albania
Christopher Nieves, 31, of Middletown, was charged with Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third degree. It is alleged that he obtained $12,480 in SNAP benefits by falsifying information concerning his income, including submitting altered paystubs to DSS to make his income appear lower than it actually was.
The District Attorney is requesting the publics aid in locating Katrine Kronaj, 74, and Pale Kronaj, 84, both of whom reside in Albania. It is alleged that they travel to Orange County from their home in Albania soley to recertify for public benefits and their public benefits card is used by others in Orange County after they return to Albania. They are alleged to have stolen over $32,000 in public benefits. The investigation into their case continues. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the District Attorney’s Office at (845) 291-3276.
Mary Donoghue, 68, who resides in Ireland, is wanted on a felony complaint charging her with Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third Degree for collecting public benefits in Orange County, while concealing that at the same time she was receiving a pension in Ireland.
District Attorney Hoovler highly commended Orange County Commissioner of Social Services Darcie Miller, and the Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit for their work on these cases, as well as Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois and the investigators in his office, who aided in the arrest of the defendants.
The maximum sentence for the Class D Felonies of Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third Degree is 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison.
“The total dollar amount that criminal defendants have been charged with since we began these enforcement actions in 2014 is close to three million dollars,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “Stopping this staggering theft of public monies, and recouping public money which has been fraudulently taken, has been a major priority of my Office since I became District Attorney. The Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit’s civil investigators, and the Sheriff’s Office’s investigators have worked with District Attorney’s Office investigators and prosecutors not only in successfully prosecuting offenders, but in recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from public benefits programs, and in recovering over one million dollars from tax frauds. We evaluate all of these cases individually, and make appropriate plea offers to lesser offenses if the circumstances warrant it. However, in all cases, defendants are not allowed to keep monies that they should not have received in the first place. Public benefits programs are designed to help the truly needy, and to ensure that money remains available to help those who need them. Fraud in these programs cannot be tolerated and must be prosecuted.”
“The County will continue to aggressively prosecute anyone who abuses Orange County’s social services. District Attorney Hoovler and his office has had success recovering public money that has been taken via fraud and these types of cases will remain a priority for us. Cheating the system and the hardworking taxpayers of Orange County is simply unacceptable.” Said Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus.
Orange County Sheriff Carl E. DuBois stated “The Orange County Sheriff’s Office continues to partner with the District Attorney and other county agencies in this and other efforts to ensure the proper distribution of benefits to those that are in need, and to arrest those that choose to cheat the system by fraudulent means. The partnership in these investigations is unprecedented and maximizes enforcement efforts put forth.”
The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Tanja Beemer.
A criminal charge is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of the criminal law, and it is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the State of New York’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.