Satmar Hasidic Family Busted in Mortgage Fraud Scheme
FBI agents reportedly arrested more than a dozen members of Hasidic communities in Williamsburg, Monsey, and Kiryas Joel this morning in connection with a mortgage fraud investigation.
An FBI spokesman confirmed the arrests to the Forward. Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has made an official statement on the arrests or the investigation.
Communal insiders told the Forward that those arrested were members of a single family connected to the Satmar Hasidic community. The family is said to have connections to both branches of the split Hasidic sect.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is slated to hold a press conference at noon in White Plains to announce the arrests. NBC reported that the suspects will be arraigned in federal court in White Plains on Thursday afternoon.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
