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Orange County residents Ally Thueson, age 32, and Elizabeth Sloanhoffer, age 33, both of Montgomery, were arrested by the county’s White Collar Crime Task Force on Tuesday, June 4, on suspicion of grand larceny and coercion.
According to prosecutors, Thueson and Sloanhoffer threatened to post false statements about Thueson’s employer online unless they were paid $9,000. The employer reportedly paid the money to avoid harm to their business.
Both defendants were arraigned in the Village of Montgomery Court and were released on their own recognizance.
Such extortion cases involving businesses often go unreported, according to Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler.
“Small business owners deserve to operate free of coercive threats of reputational harm,” Hoovler continued.
“[These crimes] are uncovered by the hard work of the Task Force. The effectiveness of these types of investigations is driven by the cooperative and skilled work of the investigators who root out crimes that might otherwise go undetected.”
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