United States of America v. Sharon Toney‑finch

New York, New York criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with defrauding military veterans' charities and falsely claiming that she was a Purple Heart recipient.



"Sharon Toney-Finch falsely claimed to be a Purple Heart recipient and used her foundation to defraud donors and others induced by that lie,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "Let today's sentence reaffirm that fraud built on lies about service and sacrifice will carry a heavy price.”



As alleged in the Indictment and in statements made in public filings and public court proceedings:



TONEY-FINCH is an Army veteran and founder of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation (the "YIT Foundation”), a registered 501(c)(3) charity that was established in Sullivan County. TONEY-FINCH was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army with various commendations, but she never received a Purple Heart award.



TONEY-FINCH's YIT Foundation reportedly strived to raise awareness of premature births, offer assistance to premature babies and their families, and provide a place to stay or transportation while the babies were in the neonatal intensive care unit. The YIT Foundation also claimed to help homeless and low-income military service veterans in need of living assistance.



In fact, the YIT Foundation was largely a fraud. TONEY-FINCH helped virtually no military veterans and, instead, used the money that had been donated to the YIT Foundation by bona fide military veterans' charities principally for her own benefit, including to pay for her BMW, a gym membership, travel, meals, and other personal expenses. In raising funds for the YIT Foundation, TONEY-FINCH also lied extensively about her military service, claiming falsely that she had been injured in an improvised explosive device attack in Iraq and doctoring her military discharge paperwork to reflect that she had received a Purple Heart, among other things. In total, TONEY-FINCH obtained approximately $85,000 as part of the scheme.



For example, in June 2022, TONEY-FINCH induced a local foundation that donates money to charities that serve veterans, food pantries, and domestic violence survivors to give the YIT Foundation $10,000 ostensibly to fund the construction of housing for homeless veterans. TONEY-FINCH used this grant money not to construct a home for veterans but rather principally to pay for her luxury vehicle and for her personal expenses at bars, restaurants, and gyms.



In May 2023, TONEY-FINCH made national news after claiming to a newspaper that the YIT Foundation had been supporting numerous homeless veterans who were being evicted from a hotel in Newburgh to make room for migrants who were being bussed from New York City. This claim caused at least one donor to wire the YIT Foundation $25,000. TONEY‑FINCH's claims about housing homeless veterans who were supposedly displaced by migrants were false.



In the process of soliciting other donations for the YIT Foundation, TONEY-FINCH frequently and fraudulently held herself as a military hero who had received a Purple Heart medal. For example, in September 2021, TONEY-FINCH submitted a doctored military discharge certificate to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and was honored at a Purple Heart ceremony alongside commissioned military officers. And in July 2022, TONEY-FINCH appeared on a video podcast to discuss the YIT Foundation and her claimed military record. At the outset of this appearance, TONEY-FINCH stated that she is the founder of the YIT Foundation and falsely claimed that she was "a Purple Heart and Valor Award recipient.” TONEY-FINCH then told an elaborate and false story about being the victim of an improvised explosive device attack in Iraq, in which TONEY-FINCH supposedly sustained injuries that required dozens of surgeries and simultaneously saved the lives of multiple fellow servicemembers.



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12 months and one day in prison. In addition to the prison term, TONEY-FINCH, 43, of Newburgh, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $84,000 in restitution and $85,000 in forfeiture.