Deceased Seven Meadows Farm operator accused of taking nearly $2 million from DECA NY

DECA NY, a non-profit organization that works with high school students in the areas of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management, has launched legal proceedings against the estate of Mary Peres, the deceased owner of Seven Meadows Farm in Goshen, in an attempt to recoup losses the organization says were the result of her “wrongful” financial activities. Peres had served as a director, chairperson, and Charter Association advisor for DECA NY for several years up until her death in November 2022.

The allegations

Between December 1, 2015, and her death, DECA NY says Peres wrongfully diverted an estimated $1,717,503.90 of DECA NY’s funds. According to an affidavit by DECA NY Chairperson Alan Balsdon, who oversaw a special committee to scrutinize the non-profit’s finances upon Peres’s death, much of the organization’s finances were under Peres’s purview.

For example, the organization’s listed address was Peres’s Goshen home. DECA NY checks contained that address and financial statements were also sent there. Balsdon also noted that from at least 2016 to the time of her death, Peres had signature authority over DECA NY checks. Prior to Peres’s death, Balsdon says he did not have copies of DECA bank statements. It was only after her death and the formation of the special committee to examine the organization’s finances that he gained access to them.

In his affidavit, Balsdon claimed that Peres regularly wrote checks, and authorized withdrawals, from DECA NY’s bank account “for expenses that were not authorized by DECA NY and served no DECA NY business purpose.” He added that checks had been made out to Peres’s family members, her personal business (the farm), and herself. He claimed that checks were deposited in Peres’s personal bank account and also written for non-DECA-related retail purchases, and medical and veterinary expenses.

Balsdon’s special committee found that from December 2015 to November 2022, checks to Peres’s son Christopher totaled $397,351 and checks to her daughter Nicole amounted to $418,592. He added that while Christopher performed only “discrete storage and transportation services” for DECA NY, none of those checks “reflect any expense that furthered any legitimate DECA NY business purpose.”

DECA NY’s legal team also pointed out that very few of the checks written by Peres to her children exceeded $10,000, which would have triggered mandatory reporting to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Regarding Seven Meadows Farm, Balsdon reportedly found checks totaling $206,207.42 that were deposited into a bank account for the farm. “Based on my personal knowledge, and after speaking with other trustees, I have no reason to believe that Seven Meadows Farm ever performed services or hosted events for DECA NY or purchased supplies or items for DECA NY. To the best of my knowledge, none of the checks identified reflect any expense that furthered any legitimate DECA NY business purpose,” Balsdon’s affidavit noted.

DECA’s request

Due to the issues noted in Balson’s affidavit, DECA NY is seeking to have Christopher Peres removed as an administrator of Mary Peres’s estate and instead appoint a public administrator from Orange County. Deca NY also requested that the court direct the estate to hold all its assets in reserve until it is determined whether or not the estate is liable for DECA NY’s claims against Peres.

The court has granted DEC NY temporary relief by ordering that Christopher Peres not exercise any administrative authority over the estate until a hearing can be held regarding DECA NY’s request to remove him as the administrator. That hearing is currently scheduled for January 10.

However, per court documents, DECA NY and the Peres estate are currently discussing a possible settlement. The estate’s attorney, Robert J. Prier, declined to comment on the case.

In a statement to students and trustees regarding the case, Balsdon said, “We are a volunteer-led organization, and we operated with an assumption of trust in each other. Unfortunately, we trusted that one of our long-time directors, Mary Peres, had the best interests of New York DECA at heart. We were wrong. We apologize to all of our student members, advisors, and school administrators. We can assure you that we have instituted new and robust financial controls and oversight. Additionally, we are pursuing litigation to try to recover stolen funds.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a response from the estate’s attorney.