The following solution worked. Thanks.
SET @SFTPString = 'open sftp://benchmarkuser:' + @Password + '@sftp.com -hostkey="ssh-dss 1024 79:77:44:33:55:3f:13:40:46:66:21:8f:7c:71:8e:02" -rawsettings ProxyMethod=3 ProxyHost=10.423.2.12 ProxyPort=4011 ProxyUsername="USER" ProxyPassword="PASS"'
SET @SFTPString = 'open sftp://benchmarkuser:' + @Password + '@sftp.com -hostkey="ssh-dss 1024 79:77:44:33:55:3f:13:40:46:66:21:8f:7c:71:8e:02" -rawsettings ProxyMethod=3 ProxyHost=10.423.2.12 ProxyPort=4011 ProxyUsername="USER" ProxyPassword="PASS"'