Top officials at the Jewish organization that processes Holocaust restitution claims were alerted to a fraud scheme being perpetrated by the group’s own employees nearly a decade before they moved to end it. The fraud scheme, which went on for 15 years and diverted $57 million to unqualified recipients, was first described in a detailed…
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by reporter Paul Berger to discuss how employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany falsely claimed $57 million meant for Holocaust victims. Then, Forward fellow Anne Cohen describes the challenges and opportunities facing America’s new rabbis. Finally, deputy arts editor Ezra…
The federal courtroom in Manhattan was notably empty considering the eye-catching size and target of the fraud: a 15-year campaign to falsely claim $57 million meant for some of the world’s neediest Holocaust survivors. Only a smattering of friends and relatives of the three accused were in the 26th-floor courtroom for the climactic closing statements…
Three people, including two former employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, have been convicted for stealing $57 million intended for Holocaust victims. Semen Domnitser—who was the director of two of the Claims Conference’s funds from 1999 to 2010—Oksana Romalis, who left the Claims Conference before the fraud was discovered, and a…
Federal prosecutors are trying to prevent a jury from hearing evidence that a multimillion-dollar fraud at a non-profit which processes Holocaust claims is even more widespread than the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office have so far revealed. The prosecutors, from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, are also trying to prevent defense lawyers from arguing…
A Brooklyn dentist was sentenced to one to 3 years in prison for using bogus homeless “patients” to defraud Medicaid. Lawrence J. Bruckner, 63, was convicted of defrauding the Medicaid program by paying people $25-$30 to solicit homeless Medicaid patients and billing taxpayers under his son’s name, for services never provided, a statement put out…
A Baltimore rabbi dubbed the ‘Jewish Indiana Jones’ for his supposed efforts hunting down torahs lost in the Holocaust, has begun a four-year federal prison sentence for fraud. Menachem Youlus began serving a 51-month prison sentence last month at the federal correctional institution (FCI) in Otisville, N.Y., the Baltimore Jewish Times reported. Convicted of two…
Israeli far-right leader Avigdor Lieberman was charged on Sunday with fraud and breach of trust, allegations that prompted his resignation as foreign minister two weeks ago, justice officials said. Lieberman, who has denied the accusations, remains head of the Yisrael Beitenu party that has formed a coalition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party…
100% of profits support our journalism
