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O’Hara and Baker pleading guilty in Prattsville fraud case

Mar 30, 2022 1:55 pm

Andrea Macko reports in Porcupine Soup that former Prattsville Town Supervisor Kory O’Hara will plead guilty to one count of the federal indictment against him. But which charge O’Hara is pleading guilty to has not been announced and on March 29 Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin agreed to an the eleventh continuance for parties to finalize the plea agreement within 90-days. Local businessperson Stephen Baker also agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in the Hurricane Irene fraud case. O’Hara and Baker were indicted in 2019 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and theft concerning a program receiving federal funds. O’Hara is also charged with bank fraud and making false statements in a loan application. After the storms associated with Hurricane Irene devastated Prattsville in 2011, the town received many grants and loans to rebuild. This included money from the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation and the New York Department of State. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says.Baker provided O’Hara with false invoices from his Prattsville-based modular home business, Moore’s Homes, that claimed construction work was done on O’Hara’s automotive garage, O’Hara’s Service Station, which Moore’s Homes did not actually perform. Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.