Rocky Point Man Indicted In $700,000 Investment Scheme: DA

ROCKY POINT, NY — A Rocky Point man has been indicted on charges he allegedly bilked over $700,000 from 24 clients in various investment schemes supporting a legal marijuana farm in California, as well as a fictitious hard seltzer company in the Hamptons, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini’s office.

Matthew Gallagher, 37, allegedly represented that he would invest clients’ money in several start-up business ventures, promising a high rate of return on the investments, Suffolk prosecutors said.

The investment opportunities also included an audio-visual company that was being liquidated; an insurance agency Gallagher claimed he was going to open; and a company he claimed to own called National Comp Advisors, as well as a consulting business for insurance agents, prosecutors said.

Sini said prosecutors have been in contact with 24 people who gave their savings to Gallagher “with the promise of sound investments only to be lied to and swindled out of their hard-earned money.”

Gallagher allegedly sold the clients on investing in “business ventures that did not exist,” and “used their money to fund his own vacations and other expenses,” he said.

Gallagher allegedly used the victims’ money for “personal expenses, and also to pay back other victims, misrepresenting the funds were returns on their investments,” Sini said, adding he also “used one of his victims’ credit cards to book airfare and lodging in Orlando, Florida, for a trip to Disney World for himself and his family.”

“It’s inexcusable,” Sini said, adding, “I want to thank the victims who came forward and reported this scheme to law enforcement, as well as the detectives and prosecutor for ensuring that he is held accountable.”

Gallagher was arrested on Nov. 27, 2019, and was charged in connection with the scheme with “respect to three separate victims,” but further investigation by the DA’s Office and the Suffolk County Police Department’s 7th Precinct Squad resulted in the identification of about 21 more victims, Sini said.

The 24-count indictment Gallagher is charged with includes felonies, such as five counts of second-degree grand larceny; 13 counts of third-degree grand larceny; three counts of first-degree identity theft; two counts of third-degree attempted grand larceny; and two counts of first-degree scheme to defraud.

Gallagher has been additionally charged with petit larceny, and seven counts of issuing a bad check, which are both misdemeanors.

He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and has been released under the supervision of Global-positioning System monitoring, which can keep track of his 11 p.m. curfew time, and a prohibition on traveling outside of New York, prosecutors said.

His attorney, Richard Pellegrino of Riverhead, was not immediately available for comment.

If convicted on the top count, Gallagher, faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.

He is due back in court on July 13.