Federal authorities have arrested the town supervisor of Ramapo on charges that he and another man defrauded municipal bond investors of millions of dollars to finance a $58 million independent league baseball stadium — that almost no one wanted built🦹.
In announcing the charges Thursday, US Attorney Preet Bharara said supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and Aaron Troodler, the former executive director of nonprofit Ramapo Local Development Corporat♍ion, “cooked the books” and lied to investors about the financial state of the Rockland County town.
St. Lawrence inflated the bottom-line number in the town’s general fund while Troodler’s RLDC iꦓssued $25 million in bonds to build Provident Bank Park in 2011, the ind💟ictment says.
They then told investors that RLDC’s bonds were being repaid with money generated by the stadium and condos that the company had put up — when really the cash was coming from bank loans or straight from town money, courtꦏ papers say.
“As alleged, while ensuring the public that no town money would be used for building the stadium, St. Lawrence and Troodler, through lies and a🐲ccounting manipulations, found a way for the town to fund more than half of that $58 million cost to build that stadium,” Bharara said at a press conference in Manhattan.
“The defendants then filled the big hole that opened up by these costs with 📖the series of f𒅌ake accounting entries.”
Bharara also said some 70 percent of Ramapo residents rejected building the new stadium in a referendum — but⛎ St. Lawrence and Troodler went forward with the plans any🌳way.
“There were more pressing needs than a shiny new sports stadium,” the top pros𝄹ecutor said.
Ramapo, about 30 miles north of New York City, was “one 𓂃of the most fiscally stressed towns in all of New York,” Bha💃rara added.
St. Lawrence, 65, and Troodler, 42, are charged with 22 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy in what fe🐟ds believe are the first such charges ever involꦇving municipal bonds.
They eachꦛ faꦰce up to 20 years in prison on the top charges.
Troodler’s lawyer Joseph Poluka h🐬ad no comment except to say Troodler would be pleading not guilty later Thursday.
St. Lawrence’s attorney didn’t immediately retur﷽n messages.