Nigerian Yiddish Speaker Charged With Fraud Jumps Bail

By Elissa Strauss May 12, 2010

John Star, a Yiddish-speaking Nigerian national, has jumped bail after being charged with mortgage fraud, the New York Daily News reported today.

Star learned Yiddish as a child from his adoptive parents who were Orthodox Jews and raised him in Switzerland. Apparently his Yiddish came in handy when committing mortgage fraud in New York.

“He moved easily in Orthodox real estate sources and hatched a scheme that bilked lenders of $10 million, officials said,” the Daily News wrote.

Star is being charged with submitting false loan applications and then pocketing the loans. Last month prosecutors in Brooklyn said they would give him 15 years in jail if he pleaded guilty, but now that he is missing, that offer is off the table.

“Rather than us having to expend valuable resources looking for him, Mr. Star should be a mensch and turn himself in,” FBI spokesman James Margolin told the Daily News.

Elissa Strauss has written for the Forward over a number of years. She is a regular contributor to CNN, whose work has been published in a number of publications including The New York Times, Glamour, ELLE, and Longreads.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO