[FS_Discussion] Rabbis loot Holocaust charity

[Orest Slepokura]

http://www.nypostonline.com/news/regionalnews/23504.htm

New York Post | Saturday, February 10, 2001

RABBIS: WE LOOTED HOLOCAUST CHARITY

By DAVID SEIFMAN and DAN MANGAN

PHOTO + CAPTION:
UNHOLY ACT: Hasidic rabbi Efroim Stein leaves Brooklyn federal court
yesterday after pleading guilty to swindling the U.S. government through
a charity for Holocaust victims. - Mary Altaffer

Two Brooklyn rabbis - including an adviser to former Mayor Ed Koch -
yesterday pleaded guilty to swindling the federal government out of
hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for Holocaust survivors.
Rabbis Jacob Bronner, 51, and Efroim Stein, 55, each agreed to serve
33 months in prison and repay up to $162,500 in restitution.

The Hasidic rabbis - who controlled the not-for-profit charity Project
Social Care - remain free on $500,000 bond until their June 8 sentencing.
They read details of their crimes in Brooklyn federal court in front of
U.S. Magistrate Viktor Pohorelsky, but would not comment afterward.

Bronner served for 12 years as unpaid adviser on Jewish affairs to Koch,
who appointed him to the city's Human Rights Commission. "I only have nice
things to say about him," Koch said yesterday.

Brooklyn-based Project Social Care was established in 1994 to provide
Holocaust survivors and immigrants with medical, job training, and other
services. In 1995, the organization applied for and received a $2.5 million
grant from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department.

The application detailed a program "of support and counseling tailored to
meet the needs of elderly Holocaust survivors," helping them "deal directly
with the Holocaust experience."

The court papers say Bronner and Stein conspired to misspend hundreds of
thousands of dollars of the grant in three ways from 1995 to 1996:

* Project Social Care allegedly paid companies for non-existent goods and
services, with the bulk of that money then kicked back to the rabbis.

* Funds were paid to an institute and several of Stein's relatives for
nonexistent training; most of the institute-earmarked funds then went to a
Stein-controlled synagogue.

* Project Social Care paid the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough
Park (COJO) in a subcontracting deal that required the council to kick back
money to businesses controlled by Bronner and Stein. Those included United
Housing & Community Services, B&B Furniture Company, and CCI Community
Consultants.

COJO officials were prosecuted in Brooklyn federal court in the late 1990s
on charges of swindling the federal government out of funds. Several were
convicted.

City records show Bronner signed a letter of intent with lobbyist Suri
Kasirer on Dec. 29, 1998 to try to win city contracts.

But the $3,000-a-month deal apparently was never consummated, since Kasirer
reported receiving no payments and said she conducted no lobbying. Kasirer,

who is married to Bruce Teitelbaum, Mayor Giuliani's former chief
of staff, couldn't be reached last night. <end>


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                                    Orest Slepokura
                                 slepokuo@cadvision.com
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