PROSECUTORS
WORK TO KEEP LID ON $57M CORRUPTION CASE
Forward.com
April
13, 2013
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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.
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The
prosecutors, from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, are also trying to
prevent defense lawyers from arguing that the German government and the
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany were negligent and
therefore partially to blame for the alleged $57 million fraud that will be the
subject of the trial.
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A
fraudster’s guilt “simply does not depend on whether a victim was diligent or
not,” prosecutors argued in court papers filed in U.S. District Court on March
22.
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Judge
Thomas P. Griesa, of U.S. District Court, has deferred ruling on both of the
prosecutors’ requests unless and until such claims arise during the trial,
which began with jury selection on April 8 and is expected to last for four
weeks.
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The
Claims Conference distributes millions of dollars from the German government to
Holocaust survivors around the world. The trial will focus on alleged fraud
perpetrated against two Claims Conference controlled funds.
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But
the government’s motions suggest, for the first time, that additional cases of
fraud may have taken place.
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In
their court papers, prosecutors request that defense attorneys be barred from
“eliciting testimony or introducing evidence at trial concerning purported
improprieties in the Claims Conference’s administration of other compensation
programs, including Germany’s Slave Labor Program and the Fund for Victims of
Medical Experiments and Other Injuries.”
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When
asked about these references, a Claims Conference spokesman told the Forward:
“The Claims Conference was a victim of an organized, complex crime. We will not
comment on the defendants’ legal strategies and possible defense theories.”
The
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also declined to
comment beyond the statements contained in the prosecutors’ filing.
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But
some survivors who have long been critical of the Claims Conference are
disappointed with the prosecutors’ request.
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“It
is very unfortunate to see the United States Attorney trying to prevent
disclosure of the evidence of misconduct inside the Claims Conference,” said
Leo Rechter, president of the National Association of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors. “Grassroots survivor leaders have been trying for years to get law
enforcement and elected officials to probe the lack of transparency and lack of
accountability within the Claims Conference.”
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The
alleged fraud that the trial will address shocked Holocaust survivors,
particularly those in the Russian-speaking Jewish community, when it first came
to light, in 2010. The plot is thought to involve thousands of fraudulent
claims filed over 16 years with the Claims Conference.
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Since
the fraud was uncovered, the Claims Conference and FBI investigators have
identified about 5,000 fraudulent claims made against two of the conference’s
funds. They believe that $12 million was lost to fraudulent claims filed with
the Hardship Fund, which makes a one-off payment of about $3,500 to people who
were forced to evacuate during World War II. Prosecutors believe that an
additional $45 million was claimed fraudulently from the Article 2 Fund, which
pays a monthly pension of $400 to needy survivors who lived in hiding or under
a false identity for at least 18 months during the war.
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ED Noor: It amazes me that these greedy diligent people did not set up a
fund for stubbed toes that throbbed for an hour`s duration.
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The
three accused are alleged to have been part of a wide-ranging scheme in which
thousands of people from the Former Soviet Union submitted applications and
documents that were later altered or supported by forged papers so that they
could make fraudulent claims.
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Federal
prosecutors portray 55-year-old Semen Domnitser, a former director of the
Hardship and Article 2 funds, as having been the fraud’s ringleader.
“Domnitser’s approval was a prerequisite for sending applications to the German
government for payment,” prosecutors say in court papers.
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Oksana
Romalis, 43, of Brooklyn, and Luba Kramrish, 58, of Toronto, are accused of
submitting fraudulent claims on behalf of family members and of recruiting
others to submit fraudulent claims.
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All
three maintain their innocence.
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Twenty-eight
people, including nine former Claims Conference employees, have already pleaded
guilty to fraud and, in some cases, to witness tampering. Nine of those people
have been sentenced, some to more than one year in jail, and ordered to pay
fines and restitution totaling millions of dollars.
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Many
of those who pleaded guilty are older than 50, and some are in their 70s and
80s. Polina Berenson, an 83-year-old former Claims Conference employee who
pleaded guilty to fraud and witness tampering in March, faces a maximum of 60
years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
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Berenson’s
lawyer, Alex Grosshtern, said his client is more likely to be jailed for
several years when she is sentenced in September.
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ReplyDeleteAn anonymous letter sent to the Claims Conference’s Frankfurt office in 2001 identified five cases where restitution was approved for ineligible claimants. I have the guts to say they are a much of thieves. I am a child of Holocaust survivors. For years I have yelled and screamed that there has been hanky panky going on while Holocaust survivors were denied their due. How stupid are we not to protest? A lot of people belong in jail. Holocaust survivors are going without food and medicine while the thieves play with their funds. If you agree with me , speak out. I call on all Holocaust survivors and their children and grandchildren to demand retribution now. I am not afraid to speak out. The claims conference in my opinion is corrupt or at least inept. Soon the holocaust survivors will all be dead. How much more money will be stolen. The more voices the public – especially survivors and their children – who raise their voices now demanding resignations, the more likely we can achieve our objectives to reform the organization and seek immediate diversion of the funds for the benefit of the dwindling numbers of ailing survivors
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
You speak for our Kedoshim, the martyrs who are no longer with us, as well for the few who are still alive.
Your words should strike a chord in all our hearts because they come from the heart!
I distinctly remember the 2001 outrage at the 'Claims Conference' in NY. There was much handwringing and finger pointing. Apparently there was insider involvement - mostly Russians who were administering the disbursement of funds. They created false identities for people, many of whom were born AFTER WWII. These people were paid off and turned the funds over to the crooks. At the time Eva and I wrote letters to the administration, etc. No one even bothered to respond and I do not know if any funds were recovered, or the perpetrators punished The German government left it to the locals here to police themselves... This was sent to me by Holocaust survivors. Both my parents have been long dead and holocaust survivors are dying everyday. I BEG OF YOU. GET THIS MESSAGE OUT TO THE SURVIVORS, THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
I wrote years ago about the poverty among so many survivors. Also about the thefts of funds and also the bank holding of the deposits of European Jews. No matter how you look at it, crooks are in charge. Not only do the survivors lose out. But also the people who are being robbed are well within their rights to become very angry at the criminals but not have the patience to discern between the decent and the indecent when they take out their ire.
ReplyDelete<>
ReplyDeleteI have been political all my life ... well since I was 13 or so... 50 years ago. But nothing made sense. Never. Until I became ~ by total fluke ~ what we call “Jew wise” shortly after 911. Then with my eyes opened I began to review what I had missed in the past. My personal life. I thought of various times of trauma in my life and, dang it, there was a Jew or Jewess behind almost every single instant. From age 15, my best friend Shelley (“the only thing Jewish about me is my nose”) seducing both my boyfriend and my girl friend after leaving me alone with a bottle of Manishevitz. I had never drunk before and lost a lot that night especially my trust. (Still get a little turn of nausea at the thought of any sweet red wine) Then there was the man who hired me as a therapist in a legitimate clinic and, unknowing to me, used my licence to run his bawdy houses. He had so many aliases we did not know what to bury him under but his actions ruined my career and again... hard life lessons.
Romance to loss of career due to several events set in motion that naive me had no clue about until it was too late. No I am not crying victim but all lawyers and causes were primarily Jewish. Just over a decade ago it was the family doctor who watched me slowly dying before her eyes for 5 years and who LIED to me over the diagnosis of tests I insisted upon. It was her Christian husband partner who accidently let the truth slip out otherwise I would have been dead within months. It was my half (but human first, Jewish way back on the list) sister in law whom I adore dearly for many reasons that found me the Jewish surgeon who actually listened to her before me but did eventually save me with almost immediate surgery for the very simple thing that I had known was the problem all along. Very mixed blessing and some nasty physical affects from starvation that I have permanently.
<<(That you served in a Jewish home is intriguing... I wonder what your experience was there.)>>
It was a mother and son. I was her housekeeper and we got on very well because I forced myself to be submissive around her. In fact, there were times when I literally told myself, “This is what slaves endure. They cannot respond.” She was verbally abusive at times and so egocentric it was unbelievable but in her arrogance was clueless about how she insulted those around her. I saw this all the time and it cost her some mighty fine gentile men who could not handle her dominance. She taught anger management but took her temper out on me. Hmmm and anyone else she could I suppose. Since I was raising 2 young children and needed the work I kept silent.
I organized and decorated her home for her Channukah parties ~ huge parties to celebrate the various holy days of Judaism. I prepared but very rarely stayed. She was not intentionally anything but herself. I swallowed a lot of words to keep that job and worked darn hard for her, she was very demanding right down to phoning me at midnight if her underwear drawer was not colour coded properly. So despite her niceness at times, she also displayed what I now see as many of the less positive human tendencies which she displayed in a Jewish manner.
The day of 911, I had watched the incident before I got there. The son was watching tv when there was a newsflash and they looked. Without a word she got on one knee to him looked him in the eye and said... very seriously... “You see, son, that is how much the world hates us Jews.” I was appalled.