Newburgh woman accused of defrauding military charities, lying about Purple Heart

WHITE PLAINS - A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accused a Newburgh woman of defrauding military charities and the Veterans Administration, and falsely claiming to have earned a Purple Heart in Iraq.

The defendant, Sharon Toney-Finch, 43, of Newburgh, was scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in federal court in White Plains.

Toney-Finch is facing federal charges including wire fraud, theft of government funds, stolen valor and altering military discharge paperwork.

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Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James Smith, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office, said in a joint news release that Toney-Finch faces a maximum potential sentence of 32 years in prison if she is convicted of all the charges.

Between at least July 2019 and about September 2023, Toney-Finch allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud donors to her charitable organization, which prosecutors did not identify by name, by falsely claiming that donated funds would be spent solely to support homeless military veterans.

In fact, she spent the funds on personal expenses, prosecutors said.

She further falsely claimed that she survived and was injured in a terrorist attack on a vehicle convoy in Iraq around March of 2010 and that she received a Purple Heart as a result.

Between at least March 2016 to the present, Toney-Finch knowingly obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability benefits from the VA by fraudulently representing that, during her military service in Iraq, she suffered combat-related injuries during a mortar attack in or around February 2010 and a vehicle rollover that occurred in or around March 2010, federal prosecutors said.

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Prosecutors also said from about August 2021 to the present, Toney-Finch falsely claimed she is a Purple Heart recipient in statements made to donors of her charitable organization, an application to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain a vanity license plate, and an application to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor to obtain a medallion and recognition on their website.

"Sharon Toney-Finch falsely claimed to have received a military award bestowed on those wounded or killed in the line of duty," Williams said in a statement released by his office. "The defendant's alleged crimes are dishonorable to the highest degree."

The name of Toney-Finch's attorney was not immediately available on Wednesday.

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Newburgh woman indicted for alleged military charity fraud scheme