Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that Gary Maldonado, 42, of New Windsor, was arrested by the multi-agency Orange County White Collar Crime Task Force and charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree.  As the charge was not bail eligible, Coles was released with an appearance ticket to return to the Town of Newburgh court on a later date.

As alleged in charges filed in court, the defendant induced two separate victims into giving him money for the purpose of home improvement projects.  Maldonado failed to perform the work promised and did not refund the victims their money when asked to do so.  The defendant also knowingly filed a fraudulent Certificate of Liability Insurance with the Town of Newburgh Building Department.

The multi-agency Task Force, which includes investigators from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Department of Financial Services, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and several other local police agencies including the Town of Newburgh Police Department, the Village of Warwick Police Department, the Village of Goshen Police Department and the Town of Woodbury Police Department, was created in March 2023 to focus on enhancing the investigation and prosecution of public corruption and financial crimes.  The Task Force’s mandate includes the investigation of residential contractor fraud; crimes involving public integrity, public corruption, and ethics violations; embezzlement and other complex theft cases, crimes against revenue; wage theft and labor law violations.

“Contractor fraud leaves those victims who trust these unscrupulous workers without significant sums of money or the work they bargained for,” said Hoovler. “While these ill-gotten gains might appear to be easy money to the offenders, these are serious crimes.  The Task Force was created, in part, to target frauds and schemes such as these.  I commend the dedication of the investigators involved in this case.  I urge any victims of fraud to report such crimes to their local authorities so that the perpetrators can be held accountable.”

The case is being prosecuted by Chief Trial Assistant District Attorney Richard Moran.