Newburgh Woman Siphons $100k from Military Charities, Claims Phantom Purple Heart

A brazen Newburgh woman has been charged with siphoning over $100,000 from military charities and claiming to be a Purple Heart recipient, despite never receiving the honor.

Sharon Toney-Finch, 43, of Newburgh, New York, was arrested today and will be presented in White Plains federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy.

According to the indictment unsealed today, Toney-Finch allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud donors to her charitable organization by falsely claiming that donation funds would be spent solely to support homeless military veterans, when in fact she spent the funds on personal expenses.

Toney-Finch further allegedly claimed that she survived and was injured in a terrorist attack to a vehicle convoy in Iraq in or about March 2010 and that she is a Purple Heart recipient. However, investigators found that these claims were entirely fabricated, and she never received the award.

Between at least March 2016 through 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 sustained combat-related injuries during a mortar attack in or about February 2010 and a vehicle rollover that occurred in or about March 2010.

Toney-Finch has been charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison; theft of government funds, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years in prison; stolen valor, which carries a maximum potential sentence of one year in prison; and altering military discharge paperwork, which carries a maximum potential sentence of one year in prison.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “The defendant’s alleged crimes are dishonorable to the highest degree, and I thank the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners for bringing today’s charges and exposing Toney-Finch’s attempt to profit on stolen valor.”

FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith added, “Sharon Toney-Finch allegedly engaged in a series of lies in which she misappropriated donations for military charities and falsely nominated herself as a Purple Heart recipient to receive illicit disability benefits. Acts of stolen valor are especially egregious as they distract from sacrifices of those who were truly injured defending our nation.”