Hudson Valley Town Supervisor Arrested on Federal Charges

A Hudson Valley Town Supervisor was arrested by the FBI, ending an almost three-year investigation into the financing for a minor league baseball stadium.

Christopher St. Lawrence and N. Aaron Troodler are accused of inflating Ramapo town assets to obtain $25 million in municipal bonds which helped build Provident Bank Park, home of the Rockland Boulders, in 2012.

St. Lawrence is the Ramapo town supervisor and director of finance. He’s also the head of the Ramapo Local Development Corporation (RLDC). Troodler is the executive director of RLDC and the assistant town attorney

According to an indictment from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, St. Lawrence and Troodler engaged in schemes to defraud investors in all bonds issued by Ramapo and the RLDC starting in November of 2009.

The defendants made misleading statements and omitted facts regarding the finances of the Town and RLDC, authorities said. It’s alleged they did so to conceal how the stadium was financed, impact the financing, and to hide the RLDC’s illiquidity. As a result of the schemes, investors lost millions, the indictment says.

The Rockland County stadium was built despite over 70 percent of taxpayers rejecting the $16.5 million plan in 2010. St. Lawrence then said the stadium would be built with private funds. The construction of the stadium ended up costing over $58 million. More than half of the development was financed by the town.

In May of 2013, the FBI and Rockland District Attorney's Office began their investigation with a daytime raid at Ramapo town hall. Documents and computer hard drives were seized.

More information is expect to be released later today.