2 Top Officials Charged in Met Council Scam

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Two former employees of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty were charged in the multimillion-dollar scam at the New York charity.
Former Executive Director David Cohen and Chief Financial Officer Herbert Friedman were arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court on grand larceny, money laundering and conspiracy charges, the New York Daily News reported. They pleaded not guilty.
According to the felony complaint, Cohen and Friedman told prosecutors they conspired with former Met Council chief William Rapfogel to collect kickbacks on insurance payments.
Rapfogel, a longtime Jewish communal professional who was considered a major power broker in New York, was fired as Met Council president and CEO over the summer after the council’s board of directors learned of financial regularities.
In September, Rapfogel was arrested on charges of grand larceny and money laundering.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
