Ramapo Town Supervisor's Trial Set to Begin Today

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — The trial begins in U.S. v. Christopher St. Lawrence on Wednesday morning. St. Lawrence, the elected Supervisor of the Town of Ramapo, is charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy in connection with municipal bonds issued by the Town and by the Ramapo Local Development Corporation. The case is believed to be the first ever with municipal bond-related criminal securities fraud charges against public officials.

One of St. Lawrence's alleged co-conspirators, the former executive director of the Ramapo Local Development Corporation pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit securities fraud with the Ramapo Town Supervisor.

Aaron Troodler was also the town's assistant town attorney when he and St. Lawrence are alleged to have have devised a complex securities fraud scheme so they could hide public funds being used for the construction of a stadium and other projects.

Prosecutors said they lied to investors buying the Town’s and RLDC’s bonds —in order to conceal both the inability of the RLDC to make scheduled payments of principal and interest to its bondholders from its own money and the deteriorating state of the Town’s finances.

They lied primarily by making up false assets in the Town’s General Fund, prosecutors alleged. The town faced deficits for years but the phony assets concealed that.

The RDLC, created and owned by the town, had one disastrous investment — Provident Bank Park (now Palisades Credit Union Park). And it had one major contribution to cooking the books involving a property known as The Hamlets.

As of August 2015, the Town had more than $128 million in outstanding bonds that had been issued for various municipal purposes, while the RLDC, a corporation created and owned by the Town under state law, had issued $25 million in bonds to pay for the construction of the minor league baseball stadium.

While the fraud predated the construction of the stadium, the Town’s financial problems were caused largely by the $58 million total cost of the stadium, prosecutors said. The Town paid more than half of that cost, despite the fact that residents had rejected paying for construction of the stadium in a Townwide referendum in 2010 and despite St. Lawrence’s public statements that no public money would be used to pay for it.

Prosecutors allege the defendants lied to investors primarily by making up false assets to inflate the size of the town's fund balance. Trends in a town’s General Fund balance over time are the primary indicators of the town’s financial health.

SEE ALSO:

• Plea in Ramapo Development Agency Fraud Case
  
• Town Officials Face Charges in Fiscal Fraud Case
  
• St. Lawrence Resigns Chairmanship of County Boards
  
• Reaction to Ramapo Indictments: Calls for Review, Reform
  
• SEC Charges 4 in Ramapo