Woodbury: Reporter Accused of Using Magical Powers to Prevent People from Speaking
Did the Creation of the Village of Woodbury Lead to Surveillance and Harassment of a Local Family, or Were They Simply Committing Crimes?
It's a day ending in "y," which means there's no shortage of strange shit happening locally. In an effort to challenge myself with shorter, more frequent posts on The Monroe Gazette, I thought we should dive into some of these events. Let's begin with Woodbury.
Above: Starting at 12:56, you can watch Mrs. Saeideh Moslem completely derail yet another Woodbury Village Board meeting. Each time she appears, whether at the Town or Village, Mrs. Moslem asks questions that we at The Monroe Gazette believe are intended to entrap the Village in potential litigation.
Mrs. Moslem asserts that a grand conspiracy involving the former Village of Woodbury law firm, Kiryas Joel, and the federal government were plotting against her husband and son.
Woodbury’s Mrs. Saeideh Moslem believes I have the power to ban people from speaking during public comment at all Woodbury Village and Town meetings.
I do not.
If I did, I would probably start by banning the MAGA supporter who suggested there were “too many brown people at the pool.”
Next, I would ban the disingenuous members of the Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats (Valerie Hebel and Matthew Fabbro). Both recently asked the Village Board what measures they would take regarding ICE, despite the fact that Matthew Fabbro served as a Village Board member for two years. In October 2025, he was directly asked what he would do about ICE in Woodbury, and he dismissed those questions by stating that inquiries about ICE were not relevant to Village business.
I hope that kid isn’t considering a future in political office, because that kind of moral cowardice ends careers.
But that’s just my opinion.
I don’t like racists, and I don’t like hypocritical politicians either.
Most people don’t.
I must also admit that every time Mrs. Moslem approaches the podium at either a Village or Town meeting in Woodbury, it often signals an unofficial bathroom break for many residents.
You can see this for yourself.
I’ve personally observed numerous residents get up to use the restroom as Mrs. Moslem approaches the podium at various Village meetings I’ve attended since The Monroe Gazette started.
In fairness to Mrs. Moslem, if Woodbury Town Board member, Brandon Calore, spoke more at Town meetings, that would actually be the best time to use the bathroom.
At this point, everyone seems tired of hearing the conspiracy theories shared by Mrs. Moslem, and the number of community members heading to the restroom is proof of this.
However, that doesn’t mean I would ever exercise some incredible, magical power to ban people from speaking at these or any other meeting—like that kid who sends people to the cornfield in the Twilight Zone.
If I had that power, Carlos Mendoza would not be managing the New York Mets right now
So What Gives?
Is Mrs. Moslem just another one of those “crazy locals” you expect to see at a Town or Village meeting?
Maybe!
It depends on how you prefer your conspiracy theories:
“With Jews” or “Without.”
As a Jew, I prefer them WITHOUT.
What we believe Mrs. Moslem is doing—if you check PACER and look up her son, Saeed Moslem—you’ll find multiple entries for a case known as United States of America v. Moslem, among others filed by both Mehdi and Saaed, whom we’ll get to in a second.
Mrs. Moslem seems to be using both Village and Town of Woodbury’s time during public comment to ensnare these municipalities into making statements that could lead them into to legal trouble.
We say this because Mrs. Moslem has talked privately with village and town officials, we’ve been told, numerous times. So the continued, and repeated, line of questioning during public comment following multiple public and private discussions is concerning.
The Moslem family later told News 12 in 2022 that the FBI and these other parties entrapped them.
As recently as February of this year, Mrs. Moslem has been filing motions to the court on behalf of her son. This is something she has not disclosed while using Town and Village time during public comment to inquire about the Woodbury comprehensive plan and its potential connection to her son’s case.
THAT is a no no.
We at The Monroe Gazette did not appreciate when Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats member, current brain-dead zombie, and former Village Trustee James Freiband repeatedly attempted to entrap the Village of Woodbury in litigation with multiple parties during meetings, including the Village of Kiryas Joel and the New York State Thruway Authority.
We feel the same way about what Mrs. Moslem is doing now.
This behavior is an abuse of public comment, a waste of time for the public, our elected officials, and government employees, and it could be costly for Woodbury residents if Mrs. Moslem is successful in suing either the Village, the Town, or both as part of her conspiracy theory regarding her husband and son’s criminal convictions, which you can read about here.
And they were convicted. Let’s state that in no uncertain terms.
In October of 2022, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated:
“This father and son duo spent nearly a decade lying about their finances to get millions of dollars in fraudulent loans while hiding their income from the IRS and, in Saaed Moslem’s case, evading his creditors through a fraudulent bankruptcy filing. Today’s sentences send a strong message that perpetrators of fraud will be held accountable and brought to justice for their actions.”
What Does The Village of Woodbury Have to Do With This Case?
Honestly, this is the only reason why we’re talking about this. On March 12, 2026, this whole thing became a public discussion during an otherwise brief Village board meeting that kept people there longer than necessary.
How the Village of Woodbury splitting off from the Town of Woodbury is responsible for Mr. Moslem and his son carrying on a decade-long conspiracy to defraud people is something only Mrs. Moslem can explain. (She did not address this in her email to The Monroe Gazette.)
When the co-conspirator, Stephen Strauhus, faced charges of his own in 2023, Assistant prosecutors Nicholas S. Bradley and James McMahon stated in their sentencing letter to Judge Seibel that with the Moslem case specifically, “the sheer number of recordings over the years that backed up Strauhs’s testimony made it nearly impossible for defense counsel to undermine Strauhs’s credibility during cross-examination and summation.”)
Public comment should not be abused by any bad actors looking to burden you, yes, you reading this Woodbury taxpayer, with higher taxes due to a lawsuit they intend to file.
As disreputable as Convicted Felon Tim Mitts is, one thing we can say about him is that he keeps his deranged, often incomprehensible, and potentially intoxicated rants on Facebook, where virtually no one sees them.
The other nice thing about Convicted Felon Timothy J. Mitts posting solely on Facebook is that, for now anyway, the platform still allows you to block people.
Or better yet, if you want Tim Mitts to block you, all you need to do is repeatedly post a link to USA vs. Tim Mitts in the comments of anything he posts.
He’ll immediately block you and cry about it. (Here’s a link to one file you can reference, where his appeal was dismissed, and the judge notes Mitts’ failure to take responsibility for his crimes.)
This situation is quite similar, we believe, to that of the Moslems, where instead of potentially taking responsibility for their crimes, it’s somehow the fault of the Village of Woodbury, its former attorney, the Village of Kiryas Joel, and the federal government.
I have first hand knowledge that the Satmar don’t like talking to the FBI. So. Yeah. I’m not buying that particular claim at all. That said, even if the conspiracy was true, the Village of Woodbury does not appear to have any sort of connection to it, thus not making it worth something to discuss at each and every public comment.
Mrs. Moslem claims the indictment contains old or otherwise outdated information but did not respond to comments concerning the guilty verdict. She stated, “In post-conviction filings, we have presented forensic evidence alleging that key court documents—including the indictment and critical transcripts—contain metadata inconsistencies and signs of alteration. The original ‘wet-ink’ indictment has not been produced despite repeated motions requesting it.” So far, no Judge has bit on these claims, as most motions submitted by Saaed that we could find in PACER have been dismissed.
Mrs. Moslem also did not respond when asked about the racist comments her son, Saeed, made before the Woodbury Planning Board. This came regarding the potential of renting out apartments he proposed to Mexican families. The Monroe Gazette has put in a FOIL request for the meeting minutes where this statement occurred, and have also requested other documents related to Mrs. Moslem’s claims.
Additionally, Mrs. Moslem has not clarified how the Village of Kiryas Joel is involved, stating only in her email:
A CPA accountant initially hired by the Moslem family later became a cooperating federal witness / informant.
• The FBI Informant, Stephen Struhus [SIC] , had connections to networks associated with Kiryas Joel, a nearby municipality with significant regional political influence (emphasis added)Michael Burke, the Woodbury Village Attorney worked in close proximity to matters involving this FBI accountant for years, and later served as his FEDERAL defense counsel.
Why those “connections” to Kiryas Joel would be relevant is unknown, but it’s disappointing to even have to mention here. Like I said the other day, you can absolutely criticize Kiryas Joel. Much in the same way you can criticize Israel. But to just lob them in and assume or imply that Kiryas Joel did something bad in this specific circumstance … That definitely gets into sketchy territory.
I know “Blame the Jews” is a popular narrative around these parts, but I seriously doubt “The Jews” instructed Mr. Struahus to assist Mr. Moslem and his son in defrauding people.
Mr. Struhaus is not identified in the original federal indictment, as he is only referred to as Co-Conspirator 1.
At this point, there is no evidence to support that Mr. Struahus was working with the FBI beyond this specific case concerning the Moslems’ accounting practices. Nor is there any evidence of wrong doing on the part of Michael Burke, who represented Struhus in federal court, according to Moslem. We reached out to Mr. Struahus for comment on this story and did not hear back from him prior to publication.
Michael Burke did not work for the Village of Woodbury, according to Village Treasurer and former Woodbury Town Clerk, Desiree Potvin.
So again, there goes the tie-in to the Village of Woodbury and this case.
We are attempting to find Michael Burke for comment regarding Mrs. Moslem’s numerous claims.
We reached out to both the Village and Town for their comments and forwarded them Mrs. Moslem’s letter. If you watch the video above, you can see that discussion unfold for yourself involving the Village, where the Mayor brings up Mrs. Moslem’s letter that we forwarded for comment.
Mrs. Moslem believes something untoward happened here, but it’s pretty standard procedure in reporter land to go to an elected official and say, “Yeah. Someone’s saying all sorts of crazy shit about you/your town. Here’s what they said. Would you like to respond?”
So now, Mrs. Moslem believes our asking the Village Mayor for comment is part of the grand conspiracy too. Personally, I really can’t wait to see how far she takes the “Let’s blame the Jews” thing.
Jewish reporter? Mysterious connections to Kiryas Joel?
Next thing you know, she’s going to start talking about Israel’s camera that they maintained in one of Jeffrey Epstein’s apartment.
Actually, that last one is true.
As always, we’ll investigate. But in the interim, I hope Mrs. Moslem spends just a little less time using the public’s.