Crooked gun license broker Shaya Lichtenstein’s access to police was so good that his applicants didn’t even have to come to headquarters for a mandated interview before they got their permits.

That revelation comes from John Chambers, a Manhattan lawyer who specializes in New York City gun licenses.

Chambers is now representing a number of Lichtenstein’s clients who have either had their licenses suspended as a result of Lichtenstein’s indictment.

The NYPD has suspended 37 permits as part of their review of the permits.

NYPD policy requires deep and extensive background checks, and a lengthy interview after the applicants are fingerprinted.

Chambers said Lichtenstein’s clients, especially the more recent ones, only had to submit a minimal amount of documentation before they got their licenses.

“There is a mountain of documentation that’s required, but all some of them needed to send in was a few pieces of paper for the permit to go forward,” Chambers said.

Lichtenstein was charged April 18 in Manhattan Federal Court with bribing cops with $6,000 in cash and other goodies to expedite gun permit requests.

A former leader of the Brooklyn Shomrim security patrol, he billed his clients between $5,000 and $25,000 for the service, records show.

Lichtenstein, 44, was so cozy with cops in the license division that he’d spent nearly every day inside the office in Police Headquarters since 2014, federal court papers say.

The post NYC Gun Broker Shaya Lichtenstein Accused of Bribing NYPD Cops appeared first on TOTPI.

A well-known singer convicted of massive tax evasion was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday.

Kobi Peretz, who was convicted in March of concealing five million shekels ($1.3 million) in income by means of fictitious invoices, was also given a suspended sentence and a fine of 175,000 shekels. He will start serving his sentence on June 30.

Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court Judge Limor Margolin-Yehidi said the sentence reflected her conclusion that “all the crimes were committed due to the defendant’s desire not to pay taxes legally on his income, to fraudulently report only a small fraction of his income and to conceal the rest.

This was an educated, considered and conscious decision … These acts were committed for financial benefit, out of pure greed, and they require significant financial punishment that will eliminate the benefit of committing such acts.”

She noted that Peretz was the sole beneficiary of his crimes; manager, Yochai Yaish, received no financial benefits from the assistance he gave Peretz other than those produced by their professional relationship.

Margolin-Yehidi also cited Peretz’s refusal to accept responsibility for his crime and the fact aside from a small sum found in his safe, most of his tax arrears remain unpaid, as “he did not see fit to return what he stole during all the years that passed.” On the other hand, she noted, he has no criminal record, and does have a long record of helping others.

“I was impressed by what the defendant did for others, dedicatedly, over time, putting the needs of other high in his order of priorities,” she wrote. “This isn’t a trivial matter.”

Nevertheless, she added, his massive tax evasion reduced the amount of government funding available to aid needy and disabled people, “the very people the defendant contributes to and assists.”

Peretz’s attorneys said he would appeal both the conviction and the sentence.

The post Kobi Peretz Gets 2-year Prison Sentence For Tax Evasion appeared first on TOTPI.

The three Orthodox Jewish men accused of brutally beating a gay black man and leaving him partially blind will likely not serve prison time under an expected plea deal.

The case largely crumbled once at least two witnesses to the December 2013 beatdown changed their version of events after initially implicating the members of the Shomrim volunteer Jewish security patrol, sources said.

Also, surveillance video from the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, scene is limited, people familiar with the case told The News.

Taj Patterson, 25, was walking down Flushing Ave. in Williamsburg in December 2013 when he was set upon by a gang of men shouting anti-gay slurs, prosecutors said.

Patterson suffered severe injuries including a broken eye socket and a torn retina that has left him permanently blind in one eye.

Patterson’s lawyer charged members of the insular Hasidic community pressed the witnesses to recant.

“The Shomrim claim they are committed to justice, yet they shut down witnesses with an efficiency the mafia would envy,” said Patterson’s lawyer, Andrew Stoll.

“They banish and shun any member of their community who dares to come forward.”

The three defendants are Abraham Winkler, 40, Mayer Herskovic, 22, and Pinchas Braver, 20.

Two of the accused men will accept a misdemeanor charge while the other will admit to a felony offense at their next court date, sources said.

None will face jail time under the agreement negotiated by prosecutors for Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, according to sources.

The DA’s office declined to comment on the plea negotiations.

The men’s lawyers did not reply to requests seeking comment.

On Monday, the case was adjourned for the 14th time, court records show.

Initially, five men were arrested for their alleged role in the early morning attack on Dec. 1, 2013.

“It was a very serious crime with incredibly serious injuries caused to the victim,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters at the time.

But prosecutors dropped charges against one of the alleged assailants, Joseph Fried, 27, last December. That came after a second defendant, Aharon Hollender, 29, also had his case dismissed last March.

The case was almost closed from the outset due to pressure from the Orthodox community, the News reported earlier this month.

Cops from the 90th Precinct initially classified the attack as a misdemeanor and inexplicably marked the complaint “closed” despite several witnesses.

It only got reopened after the Patterson’s mother vociferously complained and got media coverage on the case.

Police maintain the case was brought back to life after a crime analyst noticed it was prematurely closed.

The post Williamsburg Shomrim Patrol Accused of Beating Gay Black Man Likely To Avoid Prison appeared first on TOTPI.

Rockland County, NY – Spring Valley police are vowing to punish a group of Chasidic boys who stole an Israeli flag from a local home last week.

The incident took place on May 11th, two days before Israeli Independence Day.

Surveillance footage from the Morris Road home posted online shows a boy with black hair and glasses in a blue button down shirt and black pants snatching the flag from the porch before racing away with five other boys.

Two of the boys appear to be older than the others and are dressed in bekeshes and black hats.

Police are looking for the six boys and say they will be punished in juvenile court.

Lieutenant CJ Schnaars of the Spring Valley Police Department told News 12 that they are looking into the incident which is being classified as larceny.

“Any video helps us,” said Schnaars. “The more people that have video surveillance on their homes, the better off we are it assists us in our investigations.”

Schnaars said speculated that the incident may have been politically motivated.

“We do know that some members of the community don’t recognize Israel so there could be some dispute between them there,” said Schnaars.

One Chasidic neighbor who identified himself only as Morris said that he doubted that anyone on the block harbored those sentiments.

“I don’t know that we have neighbors like this in his neighborhood, none of them,” said Morris.

Police are hoping to locate the flag and return it to its rightful owners.

The post Rockland County, NY – Police Searching For Chasidic Boys In Spring Valley Israeli Flag Snatching appeared first on TOTPI.

WHITE PLAINS – A convicted killer’s lawsuit alleging a large anti-Semitic conspiracy against him by police, prosecutors, Orange County and City of Newburgh officials and three local judges is still making its way through federal court, reinstated after a 2015 dismissal.

Victor Koltun, an erstwhile rabbi from Brooklyn, was convicted in 2014 of masterminding a murder-for-hire plot that left Frank Piscopo, 49, and Gerald Piscopo, 28, both of Highland, dead on Nov. 4, 2010 in a vacant Newburgh house.

Two other men pleaded guilty to being Koltun’s hired guns in the murder plot.

Prosecutors proved the case against Koltun using cellphone data, video, documents and witnesses.

Koltun was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life without parole.

Koltun filed suit in 2013 while the murder case was pending, contending that he is the the innocent victim of an anti-Semitic plot by then-County Court Judge Jeffrey Berry; then-Newburgh city Judge B. Harold Ramsey; City of Newburgh police and state police; then-District Attorney Frank Phillips; Sheriff Carl DuBois and others at the sheriff’s office; the county attorney; and Koltun’s lawyers, James Winslow and Paul Brite.

Koltun claims he was targeted because of his Orthodox Jewish faith. He says police questioned him on the Sabbath, violating his religious rights, and questioned him without a lawyer.

He claims he was falsely arrested, and that police and prosecutors manufactured the evidence against him and coached false testimony from witnesses. His lawyers, he says, failed to effectively advocate for him.

The entire suit was dismissed in 2014, most of it after Koltun missed a deadline to file a revised complaint.

In August 2015, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case. Koltun refiled in January 2016, adding trial lawyer Glen Plotsky, trial Judge Nicholas De Rosa and current District Attorney David Hoovler as defendants.

Over the past few weeks, lawyers for all of the defendants in the case have filed papers asking the court to dismiss Koltun’s claims.

“Mr. Koltun’s action has no merit and we believe will be dismissed,” said Orange County Attorney Langdon Chapman, who represents the county defendants.

The state Attorney General represents the judges.

Winslow said he’s relying on his lawyer, who assures him that there is no case.

“I am confident that his claim will be dismissed again,” Winslow said.

“I just think he has nothing better to do,” Brite said.

Koltun must file papers opposing the defendants’ motions to dismiss the new suit.

Times Herald-Record

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A member of a major Israeli crime family has been arrested for the slaying of a mob prince last week in Tel Aviv, a little over a decade after he was at the center of a senseless murder that shocked the Israeli public.

Avi Abutbul, 31, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of being involved in the murder last Saturday of Shay Shirazi, the son of mob boss Rico Shirazi, who for years had feuded with his Netanya- based rivals from the Abutbul clan.

Despite the wider feud between the two organizations, Shay Shirazi and Avi Abutbul were known to be friends, and neither was known to be involved in any recent mob war.

In court on Wednesday, Abutbul denied any connection to the drive-by killing of Shirazi in north Tel Aviv last Saturday night, saying that the detective who interrogated him “questioned me for an hour and a half. And I asked him why aren’t you writing down anything I’m telling you – he asked me questions and would answer for me, he distorted everything I said.”

This is not the first time Abutbul has been at the center of a high-profile murder case. In September 2009 he was sentenced to six years in prison for accessory to murder, following the slaying of teenager Raanan Levy outside a club in Shfayim in December 2004.

Levy, who had no link to the underworld, was at the nightclub with friends when a relative of Abutbul’s called and told him he was involved in a fight with a group of youths at the club and asked him to come help.

Abutbul, the nephew of the late mob boss Charlie Abutbul, arrived in a jeep with his cousin Francois Abutbul, and ran Levy down, stabbing him to death in the the beam of the headlights of the jeep.

Levy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was not part of the crowd of youngsters involved in the brawl earlier in the night; it later emerged in the investigation.

Francois Abutbul, Charlie’s son, was convicted of murder in 2009, and given a life sentence.

It remains to be seen what motive police believe there was for Abutbul to murder Shirazi, who at the time was not accompanied by a bodyguard and apparently not believing that his life was in danger. Shay, his father’s only son, was expected to be the heir of his father’s organization.

The post Israeli Crime Family Avi Abutbul, Arrested For Killing Shay Shirazi appeared first on TOTPI.

Arnaud Mimran, the main suspect in the great theft dubbed “the sting of the century,” testified on Thursday at a Paris court that he funded expenses of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in France, as well as directly funding election campaign expenses amounting to one million Euros. Netnahyahu vehemently denied the report.

According to the law governing campaign contributions and instructions issued by the state comptroller, a Knesset candidate is entitled to accept donations from any individual totaling no more than 11,480 shekels ($2,970).

In elections for leadership of a party or in internal party primaries, in which there are more than 50,000 voters, a candidate can accept individual donations of up to 45,880 shekels ($11,870).

Mimran is suspected of stealing at least 282 million euros from the French Finance Ministry through a deception involving the rolling over value-added tax in deals relating to carbon dioxide capping.

The focus of the court discussion on Thursday was to determine whether senior figures have succeeded until now in protecting Mimran from being indicted. In this context, Mimran’s close relations with Benjamin Netanyahu came up.

A investigation by TOT and the French website Mediapart, published last month, showed that Mimran financed vacations for Netanyahu and his family in the Alps and on the French Riviera.

Mimran also lent Netanyahu his apartment in the 16th arrondissement in Paris,  taking him to a prestigious nightclub during Netanyahu’s  visit to Paris.

Arnaud’s name features prominently in the list of foreign donors that was compiled by Netanyahu on the eve of his return to power, as published by journalist Raviv Drucker on Channel 10 News.

In addition to these expenses, Mimran has now testified that he signed a cheque for financing an earlier Netanyahu election campaign, in 2001, as far as he remembers.

“I financed him to the tune of about one million euros,” he said.

Mimran’s declaration came while he was being questioned on the witness stand about the extent of his expenses.

His testimony revealed that most of his assets are not registered in his name.

He explained to the judge: “The Rolls Royce is in my wife’s name, the McLaren is in my sister’s name.

Only the Ferrari and Maserati are registered in my name.” This playing innocent caused quite a furor in the courtroom.

Mimran’s testimony also brought up for the first time the fate of the French-Israeli criminal Sami Sweid, who was suspected of money laundering at a Bank Hapoalim branch on Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv. Sweid was murdered before a scheduled nighttime meeting with Mimran, and the prosecutor hinted that police suspect that Mimran was somehow involved in that assassination.

Legal sources told TOT that the transfer of a million Euros and covering personal expenses of a foreign politician are not illegal in France so that the prosecution will not devote much attention to the matter.

Netanyahu’s friendship with someone suspected of carrying out the largest theft in European history will crop up again during the trial in relation to the impact of Mimran’s numerous friendships on the affair.

The post French Poker Player Arnaud Mimran: I Gave Netanyahu 1 Million Euros appeared first on TOTPI.

Romanian National Anti corruption Directorate (DNA) has asked for the temporary arrest of group of Israeli businessmen including Beny Steinmetz, Tal Silberstein and Moshe Agavi.

The group could face charges of money laundering, fraud and bribery. Another Israeli linked to this case Shimon Sheves will not be charged.

In April, the High Court of Cassation and Justice refused to approve the Israelis temporary detention, which had been demanded by DNA.

In the large scale corruption probe also involves the nephew of Romania’s King Carol II, Paul Lambrino, local businessman Remus Truica, and media owner Dan Andronic for the illegal restitution of conducting illicit real estate deals that cost the state nearly $150 million.

Some 20 persons will be sent to court on various charges in this case. Steinmetz (Net worth $3.5 billion as for June 2014) is accused of setting up an organized crime network, money laundering, bribery and fraud. Tal Silberstein and Moshe Agavi are accused of similar offenses.

Truica was charged with setting up a criminal group, influence peddling, money laundering, complicity to abuse of office, and bribery.

Prince Paul was charged with buying influence, money laundering, and complicity to abuse of office. Both Truica and Lambrino are under house arrest, Romanian Insider reports.

Israeli website Globes citing Adv. Yuval Sasson who represent the Israelis: “My clients’ only misdeed was doing business in Romania.

All of their business activity was in compliance with the provisions of Romanian and international law, under close supervision by the largest and most respectable law firms there. We are convinced that at the end of the legal process, the Romanian court will reject all the allegations.”

The post Romanian Prosecutor Seeks To Arrest Israeli Billionaire Beny Steinmetz appeared first on TOTPI.

New York – Two members of a prominent Honduran family accused by U.S. authorities of engaging in a decade-long money laundering scheme are seeking the dismissal of the charges after the government froze their assets and made paying their lawyers impossible.

Yankel Rosenthal, a former minister of investment under current Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, and Yani Rosenthal, a former Cabinet member in Honduras, filed papers late on Friday in federal court in Manhattan to dismiss their indictment.

Prosecutors said the Rosenthals used their businesses to engineer a scheme to launder drug trafficking and foreign bribery proceeds through U.S. bank accounts.

The motions came after months of wrangling over their inability to pay their lawyers due to the U.S. Treasury Department in October taking steps that resulted in the freezing of hundreds of millions of dollars of their assets.

They pointed to a March decision from the U.S. Supreme Court declaring it unconstitutional for the government to restrain assets belonging to defendants that are not linked to the criminal conduct, and are needed to hire counsel of their choice.

Lawyers for Yankel Rosenthal said as a result, the government was violating his “right to counsel of his choice by blocking funds he otherwise could use to pay counsel to defend against that same government’s prosecution of him.”

A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declined comment.

The two men were charged in October along with Jaime Rosenthal, a former vice president, and Andres Acosta Garcia, a lawyer with the family’s Grupo Continental conglomerate.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control classified the Rosenthals and seven businesses, including Grupo Continental and its Banco Continental unit, as “specially designated narcotics traffickers.”

That designation allowed for the blocking of hundreds of millions of dollars assets that Christine Chung, Yani Rosenthal’s lawyer, at a May 6 hearing said vastly exceeded the roughly $10 million that was allegedly laundered.

Lawyers for Yankel Rosenthal, who was president of Club Deportivo Marathon soccer club and was arrested in Miami in October, and his cousin Yani Rosenthal, who waived extradition, argue OFAC has refused to take steps to enable them to access those assets to pay their lawyers.

Yani Rosenthal has to date been able to pay his lawyers $1.5 million, while Yankel Rosenthal’s attorneys have been paid nothing, they said.

The case is U.S. v. Rosenthal Oliva et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-cr-00413.

The post Jewish Honduran Family Seeks Dismissal Of U.S. Money Laundering Case appeared first on TOTPI.

NEW YORK – This is one of those stories you feel like you’ve seen play out in any number of police shows or movie: someone knows a guy who is close with some police officers and for the right price you can get what you need.

Officials say in this case that guy is Alex Shaya Lichtenstein and that he has been bribing police officers for years.

He pleaded not guilty to bribery and conspiracy in federal court Monday. Neither he nor his lawyer commented after the proceedings.

Lichtenstein, who is not a member of the NYPD, is accused of bribing police officers in order to fast-track gun permits for as many as 150 people, including some with criminal records who would have been denied otherwise. Lichtenstein was a member of Borough Park’s Shomrim patrol.

Police say he charged people thousands of dollars to get their permit approved and was only caught when an officer he tried to bribe with $6,000 per application reported the encounter to internal affairs.

The businessman’s case is at the center of an ongoing corruption investigation into the NYPD, where so far nine members of the force have been disciplined.

The NYPD reassigned three officers as a result of Lichtenstein’s arrest but the indictment doesn’t list who is accused of bribing.

Lichtenstein is out on $500,000 bond. The maximum punishment these charges carry is up to 15 years in federal prison.

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Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, who entered prison about four months ago, has been targeted by criminals in a nearby cell who have been threatening the rav to extort money from his chassidim.

According to the Channel 10 News report, the matter began with requests for large sums of money to keep an eye out and make certain no harm comes to Rabbi Pinto in prison.

Not wishing to gamble with the rav’s well-being, especially due to his weakened condition, chassidim made certain the sum was paid.

However, a short time later a third person become involved and began his own threats against the rabbi, seeking money for guaranteeing his safety.

During Pesach things took a turn for the worse as the mother of one of the imprisoned inmates arrived at the rav’s home on seder night, asking to join in. It was explained to her that she could not due to Israel Prison Authority restrictions surrounding his leave for Yomtov.

When the rav returned to prison following leave the criminals made note of how their mother was treated, warning Rabbi Pinto his family would pay the price.

At this point police became involved. The brothers in the nearby cell who made the original threats, who are affiliated with organized crime, were shipped out of Nitzan Prison where Rabbi Pinto is housed. Each was sent to a different prison, distanced from one another. The case against them is being prepared for the district prosecutor’s office.

Shortly before entering prison Rabbi Pinto told chassidim “HKBH does what he wishes, not just that it is good for us but we must thank Him, even when it is not pleasant for us – we must thank Him”.

After exhausting appeals, Rabbi Pinto entered prison to serve a one-year sentence, the result of a plea bargain agreement.

The post Police Intervene As Rabbi Pinto Is Targeted By Extortion And Threats In Prison appeared first on TOTPI.

Organized crime in Israel benefits from insufficient cooperation between police, prosecutors, and regulatory bodies, according to the State Comptroller’s report.

In a section entitled “The Financial Battle against Serious and Organized Crime”, the report states that the Tax Authority, the Israel Police, the State Prosecutor’s office, and other bodies lack the level of cooperation needed to target illegal banking and money laundering, in particular the thousands of currency exchange businesses across Israel.

According to a 2015 Justice Ministry report, there were only 6 inspectors in the Finance Ministry responsible for regulating more than 2,000 currency exchange stores across the country.

The same report estimated that the unofficial, unregulated economy known as the “gray market” is worth as much as NIS 130 billion or more annually.

The gray market includes the underground banking system which many estimate may rival the size of the legal, regulated banking system in Israel.

These include “loan sharks” dealing with small, high interest loans to every day Israelis who often can’t get loans from banks or don’t have the luxury of waiting, and bigger “gray market” players who secure massive unregulated loans to businesses who need the short term cash flow.

The billions reaped in this unofficial economy are laundered in a multitude of ways, but most prominently through the currency exchange stores that dot the country, the control of which has often sparked turf wars in the underworld.

The Comptroller’s report states that police do not take steps to reign in currency exchanges which operate without licenses, and that this neglect, in addition to the scant licensing requirements and regulatory requirements on the industry “ease the path for crime organizations to move into this field.

The size and severity of the operations of the currency exchanges among criminals and their use as a central means of laundering money for crime organizations is well known, nonetheless, by the time the report was done, no systematic method was shown for dealing with this.”

The Comptroller’s exam found that while property seizures have increased in recent years, they are not nearly as high as they could be, because police, prosecutors, and the Tax Authority, often work independent from one another on the subject of seizures, and that greater coordination could increase the amount of assets seized.

“The comptroller’s office believes that the effective way to fight the war on organized crime and to reduce the phenomenon of crime, is through greater cooperation and by causing damage to the revenue base of criminal organizations,” the report states.

On Tuesday, Israel Police said in response to the report that “the economic harm caused to criminals and the deterrence created by the combined financial efforts against organized crime (as can be seen with criminals who have moved their operations abroad) speak for themselves.

The dozens of special police cases, joint task forces, and integrated investigations are evidence of this, as is the large amount of seizures.”

“At the same time, we will study in depth the findings of the report, and in the few cases where it says we have room to improvement we will take actions in accordance with these findings.”

The post A Lack of Cooperation By Israeli Law Enforcement Has Helped Organize Crime appeared first on TOTPI.

BRIDGEPORT – The lawsuit against Rabbi Daniel Greer and the school at which he served as principal now names three additional defendants that reportedly owned property at which the alleged sexual abuse of a minor took place.

Earlier this month, Eliyahu Mirlis, 28, filed a federal lawsuit against Greer, his former principal at Yeshiva of New Haven and the Gan School in New Haven, alleging the rabbi had sexually abused him for three years while he was a student.

The alleged abuse included partaking in sexual acts, watching pornography, and being forced to drink alcohol, according to the federal civil complaint filed in Bridgeport on May 3.

The updated complaint filed Tuesday adds F.O.H. Inc., Edgewood Village Inc. and Edgewood Elm Village Inc. as defendants in the lawsuit. Greer has served as president or director of all three organizations. According to Mirlis, some of the alleged abuse occurred on properties that these three corporate defendants owned.

Because Greer was serving as president or director of these organizations, if he had been sexually abusing Mirlis more than 10 years ago, the companies are liable for the abuse, according to Antonio Ponvert III, the attorney representing Mirlis in the case.

“It looks like these corporate entities are alter egos, or Rabbi Greer,” Ponvert said. Ponvert said that he has not yet proven this, but he believes Greer may own all or much of the property but it is listed as owned by the corporations for tax purposes.

Mainly, Ponvert said, he wants to make sure no assets of Greer are overlooked if a judgment is made in the case.

Mirlis is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for what he describes in the suit as continuous sexual abuse, exploitation and assault.

William Ward, who is representing Greer in the case, said Tuesday that he has yet to formally respond to the new complaint. He said he believes the addition of three new defendants is an indication that Mirlis is primarily interested in financial gain in filing the lawsuit.

Ward told the Register earlier this month that he hoped the public would not make any judgements of his client when no evidence has been presented.

Mirlis’s complaint alleges the years of abuse inhibited his ability to maintain relationships and caused depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, distress, humiliation and low self-esteem.

Greer was rabbi, school principal, chief administrator, president, director and treasurer of the school during the time of the alleged abuse, according to the complaint. Mirlis was a sophomore at the school when the alleged abuse began, and it continued until his senior year, the complaint states.

Mirlis was a boarding student at the school from September 2001 to June 2005. The suit claims other school officials knew of the alleged abuse at the time.

Criminal charges have not been filed in the case, but Ponvert said he and Mirlis have been in touch with law enforcement.

The post Suit Against Rabbi Daniel Greer Accused of Sexually Abusing Boy Expanded To Real Estate Corporations appeared first on TOTPI.

ROCKLAND COUNTY, New York – The girlfriend of a Rockland County podiatrist who is accused of conspiring with the man to murder his wife was arraigned Friday.

Kelly Gribeluk’s court appearance marked the first of two arraignments in this case, which police describe as “complicated and convoluted.”

Gribeluk has been sitting in jail since her arrest three weeks ago, while 41-year-old Ira Bernstein has been free on $600,000 bond. She pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges in the alleged plot to kill Susan Bernstein.

“The people have Ms. Gribeluk on tape on numerous occasions, at least 10, speaking with the would-be hit man to carry this out,” assistant District Attorney Richard Moran said. “The case against her is extremely strong.

Investigators say the alleged plot was revealed when an informant first came to police in Suffern. Authorities in early May described an elaborate plan using wiretaps, meetings and even cash payments to build a complicated case against the pair.

“They turned over things that would have a helped a would-be killer to go forward,” Ramapo police Detective Lieutenant Mark Emma said. “There was money exchanged.”

Gribeluk’s attorney argued for bail of $50,000 so she can continue visitation rights with her three children, arguing there was no reason to believe she poses a flight risk.

“Her attachment to her children, the custody she had with her children from Sunday to Wednesday that she would not come back to come back to court,” defense attorney Barry Weiss said.

In addition to the plot against Bernstein’s wife, police said Bernstein and Gribeluk wanted two insurance investigators beaten up because they were looking into potential fraud charges involving Bernstein’s podiatry business.

“Giving cash to this ostensible hit man for the purpose of not only killing Susan Bernstein, but also assaulting two insurance investigators,” Moran said.

Her bail remains at $600,000.

“Since she is in jail, she cannot spend Sunday through Wednesday with her children anymore,” Weiss said. “So it certainly impacted on that relationship.”

Both defendants are charged with second-degree conspiracy, second-degree criminal solicitation and two counts each of fourth-degree conspiracy and fourth-degree conspiracy.

The post Rockland County – Murder Plot: Kelly Myzner Gribeluk Pleads Not Guilty appeared first on TOTPI.

Prosecutors in the Paris trial of Arnaud Mimran and 11 other men accused of carbon VAT fraud in a case referred to in France as the “heist of the century” made their closing arguments last Thursday.

Prosecutor Patrice Amar requested 10 years in prison and a million euro fine for each of the three alleged masterminds, Arno Mimran, Marco Mouly and Jaroslaw Klapucki.

In addition, the prosecutor asked for the seizure of €283 million of assets from the 12 defendants, five of whom are reported to have fled to Israel under the Law of Return — which grants citizenship to individuals of Jewish ancestry — and who did not present themselves at their trial.

In 2008-2009, the French government lost approximately €1.8 billion to a scheme that involved fraudsters buying carbon credits in EU countries where no VAT (value added tax) was charged, and reselling them in France while charging 19.6 percent VAT but never remitting that tax money to the government.

The five defendants living in Israel are named in the French press as Eddie Abittan, Michael Haik, Gabriel Cohen, Jeremy Grinholz and Frederic Sebag.

The prosecutor requested 5-6 years in prison and a million euro fine for each of them. Should they be sentenced, it is unclear whether the Israeli government will extradite them to serve their terms.

The defense is currently making its closing remarks, after which the judge will render a decision.

One of the most dramatic moments in the trial was when accused fraud mastermind Arnaud Mimran took to the witness stand and declared that he had given Benjamin Netanyahu €1 million.

Netanyahu’s office denied the claim, and a lawyer for Netanyahu denied on Israel’s Army Radio that he had taken that amount. Netanyahu did admit to the Haaretz daily in an April 15 report that he had accepted money from Mimran in the past.

What made him say it?

A May 19 article in French online investigative journal Mediapart describes in detail the context and lead-up to Arnaud Mimran’s startling announcement that approximately 15 years ago he funded Netanyahu to the tune of €1 million.

According to the report, Mimran was being grilled on the witness stand over a dozen trips he took to Israel at the height of the scam, in 2009. Seeking to dissociate himself from the Israeli branch of alleged fraudsters, Mimran told the court that some of the trips were vacations with his family, others were for personal leisure and one trip was motivated by the inauguration of Benjamin Netanyahu on March 31, 2009.

At this point, the presiding judge asked Mimran, “You have also funded Netanyahu?”

“That’s what the press claims,” a lawyer interjected.

“No, it is on record in the criminal file,” replied the judge.

To which Mimran replied, “I paid him a million.”

“Was that a loan that was repaid?”

“No.”

The report in Mediapart concluded: “We therefore deduce that Arnaud Mimran, currently at the heart of several serious criminal investigations in France (homicides and a kidnapping case) funded political activities of the current Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

Mimran is also under investigation in France for kidnapping and extorting a Swiss banker, but to date has only been charged with fraud.

The French newspaper Liberation has reported Arnaud Mimran’s donation of €1 million to Netanyahu as if it were an established fact and not merely an assertion by Mimran himself.

Liberation referred to the Israeli prime minister on May 26 as “Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Arnaud Mimran had paid one million euros in the early 2000s before he again became prime minister of Israel.”

The French court did not follow up on the question of the money donated to Netanyahu, since it was not directly relevant to the case before it.

However, on May 19 Knesset member Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union) requested that Israel’s attorney general and state comptroller investigate whether Netanyahu did in fact receive the money.

“If Mimran’s testimony is true,” Svetlova wrote in her request, “it would constitute a crude violation of the integrity expected of an elected representative, in particular of the office of prime minister.”

Svetlova added, “The smell of corruption is wafting far and wide. The state comptroller has ruled, as Netanyahu and his lawyers know very well, that it is illegal to raise more than NIS 11,480 (some $3,000) from a single donor for a Knesset run and more than NIS 45,880 (some $12,000) for a campaign to be head of a party.”

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The Justice Ministry confirmed on Sunday night that Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit has ordered a review of possibly non-reported millions in funds transferred from French billionaire Arno Mimran to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of the 2009 elections.

Mimran has been testifying in a fraud case against him in France for failing to report the fund transfers and Mandelblit’s order means there will now be an initial review to determine if there should be a criminal investigation into whether any Israeli laws were violated.

The confirming Justice Ministry statement was vague and gave no indication of whether the review could pose any kind of serious legal threat to the prime minister.

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An Israeli man who killed his two children while they were visiting Israel from the United States was sentenced to two life terms in prison on Sunday.

Avraham Levy, from Yashresh moshav in central Israel, killed Yishai, 11, and Sarah, 10, in June 2014, in what the Central District Court in Lod said was an “act of revenge” against his ex-wife. He was found guilty of murder two weeks ago.

Levy was also ordered to pay his ex-wife half-a-million shekels ($130,000.)

Levy and his former wife, an American citizen, met in the United States.

They lived in Israel and had two children during the four years they were married, before divorcing in 2006.

Three years after the divorce, Levy’s wife and children took refuge in a shelter for battered women. While in the shelter, Levy’s wife sought court permission to return to the U.S. with the children.

Permission was granted on the condition that suitable visiting arrangements be made for the children to see Levy.

The visiting arrangement began to break down in 2013, causing Levy great distress. He decided to kill the children to avenge himself against his wife.

Prior to the arrival of the children in Israel to spend the summer with their father, Levy bought a knife, plastic restraints and blindfolds. From the airport, he took them to the moshav, where they spent the evening with Levy’s family.

Back at home, Levy persuaded the children to allow him to handcuff and blindfold them. He then slit their throats. Following the killing, Levy changed into clean clothes and drove to the Ramle police station to hand himself in.

“The accused committed this ghastly murder with the very clear intention of avenging himself against his ex-wife for leaving him and taking the children,” the court wrote in its judgement.

“A person who kills his children in cold blood and in such a way is devoid of humanity and the sentence he deserves is to remain behind bars for the rest of his life.”

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received $40,000 in 2001 from Arnaut Mimran, a French tycoon on trial for fraud, a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday said.

Mimran, who is the key suspect in a massive fraud case in France, told a Paris court that he gave 1 million euros to Netanyahu’s election campaign, a claim Netanyahu denies.

“The claim that Arnaut Mimran donated a million euros to Mr. Netanyahu’s election campaign is a baseless lie,” the statement issued on Monday said.

“There was no contribution to Netanyahu’s election campaign.

“In August of 2001, when Mr. Netanyahu was a private citizen, Mimran donated $40,000 to a fund for public activities by Mr. Netanyahu, which included media appearances and numerous public diplomacy travels for the benefit of the State of Israel, and was done in accordance with the law.”

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has instructed that an examination be made of suspicions against Netanyahu raised by Mimran’s court testimony, Channel 10 News reported.

Mimran mentioned the payment when he was being questioned in court about his activities in 2009, but did not say specifically to what campaign he had contributed. During the court session the chairman of the judges’ panel said the payment to Netanyahu was in the evidence file.

The State Comptroller’s Office conducted an examination into Mimran’s allegation following a request from Haaretz, which revealed that it received no report about contributions by Mimran for Netanyahu over the past decade.

The examination included reports of contributions from 2006 to the present. By law and the state comptroller’s instructions, a candidate for the Knesset may not receive more than 11,480 shekels ($2,984) from a single donor and a candidate for party chairmanship may not receive more than 45,880 shekels.

Filing a false report with the state comptroller is a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment.

However, candidates have only been required to report contributions to the state since 2006; prior to that year they were only required to report contributions to their party’s internal comptroller.

Likud’s comptroller, attorney Shai Galili, has no materials pertaining to the period before 2013 when he took up his post because the materials were not passed on to him by his predecessor.

The matter of Mimran’s contribution to the prime minister came up when Mimran was asked by the prosecutor why he went to Israel 10 times in 2009. Mimran said that on one of his trips he went alone to meet Netanyahu. It was at that point that the chairman of the judges’ panel interjected: “Indeed in the evidence file your payment to him appears.”

Mimran’s defense attorney objected and argued that the information “was only reported in the newspaper,” but the panel chairman overruled his objection and said: “No, dear sir, it certainly does appear in the file here before me.”

After that exchange, Mimran said: “I funded Netanyahu in the amount of 1 million euros. That was in his election campaign. Then in 2009, when he was indeed re-elected prime minister of Israel, I went to Israel and we met.”

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Israel — The scam had all the trappings of a major con. Working from a dingy office building just a short drive from the glittering Mediterranean Sea, eight immigrants from Europe formed an unlikely team that allegedly conspired to dupe major multinational companies out of millions of dollars.

Most of them spoke French, the others Italian.

Using their language skills and familiarity with European business practices, they telephoned employees at some of Europe’s biggest companies, identified themselves as top executives and tricked workers into transferring large sums of money to bank accounts in their control, police said. Among the companies targeted, according to police and suspects’ lawyers: Kia Motors, Hugo Boss and Chanel.

It was a classic “fake CEO” or “fake president” scam, a scheme used by various criminals worldwide that has robbed companies of some $1.8 billion in just over two years, according to the FBI. Most of the eight suspects in the latest case are either jailed or under house arrest.

But not the man who boasts of pioneering the scam years ago, inspiring copycats like these around the globe: French-Israeli con artist Gilbert Chikli.

He mysteriously remains a free man, living in luxury in his villa in a seaside Israeli city as French authorities try to bring him to justice over a massive con for which he was previously convicted.

“If they have a problem, they can come see me.

They know my address. I am not fleeing,” Chikli told by telephone. “Send them my regards.”

The case illustrates how financial crime has globalized faster and more efficiently than the law enforcement that is trying to fight it.

Israel extradited Chikli to France to stand trial in 2008 for defrauding HSBC, Thomson, Accenture and other companies out of 6.1 million euros, and attempting to extract over 70 million euros from at least 33 others. But in 2009, Chikli says he chartered a private plane and flew back to Israel.

A French court in May 2015 sentenced him in absentia to seven years in prison. Instead, he’s been sipping coffee at a portside café in Israel and hanging out at his private swimming pool.

France issued two requests to Israel for Chikli’s arrest, the French Justice Ministry said. The first request came the year after he escaped prosecution in France.

The second came this January, according to a copy of the Interpol notice obtained.

It was issued just two weeks after the release of a new heist-thriller film based on Chikli’s life story, starring Julie Gayet, the companion of French President Francois Hollande. Chikli’s wife, Shirly, attended the Paris premiere.

Still, Israeli officials show no signs of going after Chikli, even as they prosecute his alleged copycats for similar crimes. Israel’s police and Justice Ministry declined to explain why, saying they do not discuss individual cases.

France’s Justice Ministry said the Interpol notice issued against Chikli, called a “diffusion,” is the equivalent of a provisional arrest warrant, with an aim to extradite a criminal to France. Interpol cannot force a country to comply with arrest notices and some countries routinely ignore them.

Israeli Justice Ministry spokesman Noam Sharvit said Israel adheres to extradition requests when warranted.

French Justice Ministry spokesman Olivier Pedro-Jose said Israeli-French cooperation on such cases comes with delays.

“The execution of requests for help from French officials by their Israeli counterparts often relate to extremely complex financial affairs, which demand long and considerable investigations,” he said.

Irit Kohn, a former director of the Israeli Justice Ministry’s international department, said the countries’ differing legal systems has held up cooperation on criminal cases.

Criminals, in contrast, have been far more nimble at running their cross-border activities, keeping a step ahead of the law.

In the case of the eight immigrants in Israel, police began tracking them in November, secretly videotaping them from inside their office in an old building housing a car-repair shop in Netanya, a Mediterranean city north of Tel Aviv that is home to a large French immigrant community.

On May 2, police raided the suspects’ office. Suspects tried to destroy computers and telephones, police say, in an effort to get rid of evidence.

Defense lawyer Liya Felus said indictments in the case are set to be issued Wednesday, though she did not know how many would be charged. Police investigated the case together with Belgian authorities, requesting legal assistance from France, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, according to court documents.

In the meantime, police are keeping most of the details secret.

In court hearings over the past month in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, a police investigator repeatedly handed thick binders of classified evidence to a judge, as suspects wearing leg cuffs sat behind a glass panel and the suspects’ relatives and lawyers looked on.

Posing as company executives, the suspects telephoned employees in charge of finances, presented themselves as the CEO, sought information about vendors owed money, and convinced the company representatives to send money to bank accounts in Europe, according to police.

They are suspected of defrauding or attempting to defraud companies in France, Belgium, Italy and elsewhere in Europe out of 10.5 million euros ($12 million).

A police investigator said in court that between January and April, they’d managed to persuade an employee of Kia Motors in France to transfer 462,000 euros ($520,000) to a bank account they controlled.

A lawyer for one of the suspects said police confronted his client with documents pertaining to luxury fashion companies Hugo Boss and Chanel. Police would not comment on the companies involved, or say how they linked the suspects to the accounts.

A representative for Chanel declined comment. Repeated messages to Hugo Boss went unreturned.

A spokesman for Kia Motors France, Xavier Domenech-Cabaud, would not comment on the case. “Like all big companies, we’re confronted with cybercrime,” he said in an email.

“Our processes are constantly analyzed and reinforced.”

According to police, each suspect played a unique role in the scam.

Two Italian speakers were allegedly in charge of telephoning Italian companies and persuading them to transfer hundreds of thousands of euros to their bank account. Others allegedly did the same to companies in France and Belgium.

Two French speakers formed the “creative team,” police said, faking documents, signatures, emails, company logos and bank statements.

An additional French speaker handled bank accounts and money transfers, police say.

Police also offered few details on how the con artists laundered their stolen money. They are investigating the source of 20,000 euros found in a safe deposit box in a synagogue which one suspect claimed were merely donations.

Another suspect was found with Chinese bank account information written on a piece of paper tucked away in his passport cover, a police investigator said in court, without offering further details.

Western intelligence documents obtained by the AP describe scam artists based in Israel who target European companies and use underground Chinese money transfer systems to launder their stolen funds.

Chikli, who is not suspected of involvement in the latest alleged con, told the he laundered most of the money he stole in his scam through bank accounts in China, which is emerging as an international hub for money laundering.

One suspect’s lawyer says his client has confessed to his role in the scam, while others say their clients are innocent or invoking the right to silence.

One lawyer said his client told him from jail that it was unfair that he, who professes innocence, was in Israeli custody while Chikli, who had confessed to his scam, lived free.

The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation with his client.

Chikli’s first victim, the manager of a bank whom he convinced to hand over a cash-stuffed bag in the bathroom of a Paris café in 2005, is shocked that Chikli has escaped his prison sentence, according to her lawyer.

“She is absolutely scandalized by the fact that this decision is not enforceable, that he is still at large,” said Sylvie Noachovitch, a lawyer for Madame G., whose name cannot be printed due to French privacy laws. “For France, this seems not to be a priority issue.”

Israeli police said they work with law enforcement from around the world to clamp down on the phenomenon.

“The Israeli police regard with severity the criminal involvement of Israelis in scam cases,” police said in a statement.

Israel’s proximity to Europe, its educated, tech savvy population and large numbers of immigrants fluent in so many languages would seem to provide some of the tools necessary to carry out such schemes. Some scammers, including Chikli, seem to believe that Israel provides a safe haven from prosecutors overseas.

It touches a sensitive nerve in Israel: Police are concerned about such fraud tarnishing the reputation of Israel and Jews living abroad.

“Due to the seriousness of the crime, it has led to displays of anti-Semitism, also in local French press,” a police investigator said during a recent hearing, citing previous examples of French Jews convicted of fraud.

One suspect’s lawyer cited anti-Semitism in France as the reason his client moved his wife and three children from France to Israel in the first place.

Chikli told the he believed French Jewish copycats use the scam to rebuild their lives in Israel after fleeing anti-Semitism in France.

Most of the suspects and their families are devout Jews.

In successive hearings over the past month in a courtroom in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, many suspects wore skullcaps and some murmured prayers as their lawyers pleaded their case.

The suspects’ wives one of them eight months pregnant and relatives sat in the courtroom, mouthing words of encouragement. Some recited prayers.

A woman wailed and ran out of the courtroom.

A man in a dark V-neck shirt clasped a mezuzah the small case holding a parchment prayer that is affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes like an amulet.

Sammy Ghozlan, a former French police commissioner and founder of France’s National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, who now lives in Israel, said scams carried out by French Jewish immigrants give French Jews and Israel a bad reputation in France.

He said fraudsters believe they can get away with scamming French companies while in Israel, and claimed Israel was not doing enough to fight the phenomenon.

“These people feel protected in Israel,” he said.

The post Israeli Police Bust New Crime Ring That Stole Millions From Global Companies appeared first on TOTPI.

The central witness against Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the fugitive head of the Shuvu Banim sect who was finally arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa two months ago, has spoken out on shocking details of the sexual abuse case against Berland.

Berland fled from Israel in 2012 after several women as well as a 15-year-old girl laid charges of sexual assault against him. He evaded capture in the US, Switzerland, Morocco and Zimbabwe and managed to avoid extradition from Holland, before being finally arrested in South Africa in April – now he faces extradition to Israel to stand trial.

Central witness Itay Nachman Shalom, formerly a member of Shuvu Banim, exposed his testimony against Berland to Walla on Wednesday, and spoke about the persecution he faces from the sect.

“They crushed us from all sides,” said Shalom. “We underwent a private Holocaust and our only hope is upturned to He who Dwells on High.

Our tears fell like water but there is no despair. We will fight for the truth – even at the cost of our lives.”

“We will not rest and we will not be silent. Not from threats and not from blows. Whoever harms us – that’s a great mitzvah for us,” he said.

Shalom was one of the charismatic rabbi’s most devoted followers, and was a member of the adoring youths who followed Berland everywhere.

He would wait for the rabbi for hours outside of his home in Beitar Illit, but one night he recalls climbing on top of the drainpipe outside of the house to try and sneak a glimpse of Berland praying and studying Torah.

To his horror, he instead saw the rabbi naked “bending forward over a female student and moving upwards and downwards.”

The sight shook him and brought him to a great crisis of faith. “I told myself either he is the most righteous or he is the most evil,” Shalom said.

Death threats and assault

Rumors of what he saw that night spread like wildfire in the Shuvu Banim sect and through the wider haredi community, and mere days before the police launched an official investigation, Berland succeeded in fleeing Israel, remaining fugitive and at large for three years.

The police have four complaints by female members of the community accusing Berland of sexually abusing them. The police also have two additional files accusing the rabbi of using violence against members of his sect.

Shalom nearly paid with his life for exposing the scandal.

He receive death threats and incessant harassment, and in two cases was physically assaulted. He was forced to move with his family from Jerusalem to Tzfat (Safed), where he is far from the headquarters of the sect.

Shalom recalls that when he visited Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s grave in Ukraine’s Uman for Rosh Hashanah, a group of Shuvu Banim members struck and assaulted him.

As noted Berland was finally captured two months ago in Johannesburg. After a month-and-a-half in jail he signed off on extradition orders to Israel, although the process is being delayed.

Sources close to Berland say the process was held up at the last minute after South Africa’s justice minister refused to sign the extradition order for some unknown reason, and the rabbi then decided to oppose the extradition again and petition it in court. However, it is not clear if his opposition will make any difference now that he has signed off on being extradited.

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