By MELISSA KLEIN, KEVIN FASICK and CHUCK BENNETT
Just in time for the holidays, state authorities are going for the jug-ular -- seeking to banish forever the panhandling pests who clog Manhattan's busiest corners with folding tables and plastic water bottles.
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed suit yesterday, charging the United Homeless Organization is a scam run by con artists who pocket most of the change they collect -- hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
The beggars -- most of whom claim to be street people -- say that the money tossed into their jugs goes to the homeless. And it does, the suit says. They just don't bother to say they're talking about themselves.
UHO founder Stephen Riley and director Myra Walker take a big cut of the money to fund personal shopping sprees at the GameStop, Home Shopping Network, Bed Bath & Beyond and P.C. Richard, as well as their monthly cable bills, legal papers charge.
Riley, a beefy 60-year-old, shamelessly used the donated dollars -- which are supposed to be used to "feed the homeless" -- to pay his Weight Watchers bills.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeks a temporary injunction to shut down the UHO, then permanently disband it and keep Riley and Walker from ever taking part in charitable causes.
The organization, run out of Walker's Bronx apartment, did not return a call for comment.
The scam was strikingly simple, Cuomo said.
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