Rocky Point man scammed investors out of more than $700G, Suffolk police say

A Rocky Point man is accused of scamming investors out of more than $700,000, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Matthew Gallagher, 37, "used investment schemes in fraudulent startup business ventures and insurance-related frauds to scam sixteen victims between November 2019 and April 2021," the police department said in a news release.

Gallagher, who was arrested at the Seventh Precinct in Shirley on Wednesday night, is charged with multiple counts of scheming to defraud, grand larceny, identity theft and issuing a bad check, and one count of attempted grand larceny.

The release did not say how the alleged crimes came to the attention of the police. Asked to provide further details of what Gallagher allegedly did, the police department's press office declined to do so.

At an arraignment hearing Thursday before Suffolk District Court Judge Al Graf, Gallagher was freed with GPS monitoring, according to Sheila Kelly, a spokeswoman for the county district attorney, Timothy Sini.

Gallagher couldn't be reached for comment, and Richard Pellegrino, the attorney who Kelly said represents Gallagher, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Felony complaints against Gallagher, signed by Det. Lawrence Gualtieri and released by Kelly, did not include much beyond the text of the statute with names and dates added, and none of the multiple people listed as victims in the documents could be reached Thursday evening.