Judge orders St. Lawrence to pay $327K, bars him from securities work

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Christopher St. Lawrence arrives for sentencing Former Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence arrives with attorney, Michael Burke of Suffern, for sentencing for corruption-related convictions at U.S. Courthouse in White Plains on Nov. 27, 2017.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's case against former Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence is officially over.

The same judge who fined St. Lawrence $75,000 in March when she sent him off to federal prison for 30 months for fraud and conspiracy has now stripped the former town supervisor of his ability to ever trade municipal securities and ordered him to pay $327,000 in civil penalties.

The Oct. 22 ruling, by Judge Cathy Seibel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ends nearly three years of legal proceedings over Securities and Exchange Commission charges involving the construction of the town's minor-league baseball stadium, home of the Rockland Boulders, the SEC said on Nov. 15.

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St. Lawrence is serving his sentence at the Federal Prison Camp Canaan, in Waymart, Pennsylvania. The camp — with dormitory-style living quarters — is considered a low-security facility, and is next to a high-security prison.

The camp, a destination for many inmates from Northeast states, is 20 miles east of Scranton and 134 miles north of Philadelphia.

It was unclear if St. Lawrence was aware of the final disposition of the case against him. A call to his attorney, Michael Burke, seeking comment was not immediately returned.

SEC charges from 2016

In 2016, the commission charged that St. Lawrence, the town, its development corporation and three other officials defrauded investors by hiding the town's sinking financial fortunes brought on by the stadium's $58 million construction and the town's slumping tax revenues.

The town's balance sheets falsely showed positive balances between $1.4 million and $4.2 million during a six-year period when the town had actually accumulated balance deficits as high as nearly $14 million, the SEC said.

The town and the development corporation agreed to settle the charges in 2017, and the three other town officials — Nachman Aaron Troodler, Tax Receiver Nathan Oberman and Town Attorney Michael Klein — agreed to settle in 2018.

The final judgments against Oberman and Klein:

Ordered Oberman to pay $10,000 in civil penalties and Klein to pay $25,000 in civil penalties.

Required Oberman and Klein to resign from town employment with Ramapo.

Prohibited them from being employed by the town for five and seven years, respectively.

Oberman and Klein consented to their respective final judgments without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC's complaint.

Troodler testifies against St. Lawrence

In March 2017, Troodler, former executive director of the Ramapo Local Development Corporation, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the criminal case brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Troodler was spared federal prison time in January when Seibel sentenced him to 18 months probation and a $20,000 fine as a result of his testimony against St. Lawrence.

During St. Lawrence's trial, Troodler testified that St. Lawrence rigged the town's books, manufactured revenues and manipulated funds to make payments on the $58-million stadium's $25 million bond.

St. Lawrence, Ramapo's supervisor from 2000 to May 2016, was convicted by a federal jury in May 2017 on 19 of 20 counts of securities and wire fraud, and conspiracy, in a scheme to finance the town baseball stadium.

GUILTY: Jury convicts St. Lawrence on fraud, conspiracy

Seibel sentenced St. Lawrence to 30 months, a term that could be shortened by 54 days per year for good behavior under federal rules, which prohibit parole. She fined him $75,000.

Burke filed a notice of appeal. He has claimed St. Lawrence was the victim of judicial errors and insufficient evidence.

St. Lawrence's conviction ended his nearly 17-year reign as Ramapo's top elected official. He was appointed supervisor to succeed Herbert Reisman in 2000.

He will get an annual state pension of $46,970 based on just over 19 years of service and a final salary of $145,645 as supervisor.

St. Lawrence, who did not testify during the trial, was not accused of personally profiting from his alleged schemes, including lying about bonds toward the town's $60 million stadium.