NEW YORK – A 58-year-old Woodstock man has been sentenced to five years’ probation for his role in stealing $90,000 in Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds to which he was not entitled.
Denesh Melwani of Ulster County and his sister, Shaleen Mahtani, 56, of Paramus, New Jersey, pled guilty to grand larceny. The money has been repaid.
Mahtani is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the funds were stolen from a program created to protect New Yorkers in desperate need of housing assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To pull off the scheme, the two filed a phony application with the office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to fraudulently obtain funding through the program.
Mahtani and Melwani bought a condo in Brooklyn for $1.6 million in 2018. Melwani transferred the property to Mahtani, but in August 2021, they filed papers with the state falsely claiming that Melwani was Mahtani’s tenant in the condo and that he owned his sister back rent for a period of time in which the two jointly owned the property.
As a result, Mahtani received the $90,000, which they split.
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