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.

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.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO