Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Leader Of Jewish Town Faces Trial In Landmark Municipal Financing Scandal

The leader of a heavily Jewish New York suburb faces trial on Wednesday in a landmark securities fraud case involving municipal bonds — a scandal that already felled a prominent Orthodox leader.

Christopher St. Lawrence, the elected supervisor of Ramapo, New York, has been charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors say he defrauded investors who helped finance a controversial minor league baseball stadium.

Jury selection is set to begin before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel in White Plains, New York federal court on Wednesday morning.

New York federal prosecutors charged St. Lawrence in April 2016 along with Aaron Troodler, former executive director of the town-owned Ramapo Local Development Corp.

Troodler pleaded guilty last month under an agreement with prosecutors. He is a prominent Jewish leader and led a group pushing for the release of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

The case followed U.S. regulators’ push in recent years to bring civil actions those accused of misconduct in the $3.7 trillion U.S. municipal bond market.

Prosecutors said Ramapo and the development corporation sold more than $150 million of bonds while Troodler and St. Lawrence concealed the town’s deteriorating finances.—Reuters

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.