Thursday, March 21, 2013

Special Education Provider Stole Millions, State Audit Says

NY Times   One of New York City’s largest providers of special education services to preschoolers with disabilities illegally diverted millions in taxpayer financing to a girls’ religious school, summer camps and a kosher supermarket owned by the group’s officers and board members, state auditors said on Monday. 

The auditors were unable to confirm that any of the hundreds of children who were supposed to get one-on-one instruction from the agency, Island Child Development Center, ever actually did, said the office of the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli. 

After subpoenaing more than 13,000 checks from the agency’s bank, auditors said they gave up counting after the first 1,549 checks they reviewed turned up $5.8 million in what they said was fraudulent spending over a six-year period when Island Child billed the state and the city more than $27 million.[...]

As of last April, Island Child was billing taxpayers for providing one-on-one teachers to nearly 200 disabled children ages 3 to 5, records show. 

Yet Island Child, in Far Rockaway, Queens, paid nearly $2 million to Bnos Bais Yaakov, a nearby school for Orthodox Jewish girls, of which the auditors said Rabbi Samuel Hiller, the assistant executive director of Island Child, is both dean and an owner. Another $877,000 went to various Jewish summer camps, two of them tied to Mr. Hiller, and more than $330,000 in nonpayroll checks went to Mr. Hiller himself, the auditors said.[...]

Auditors said Island Child also bought $344,000 in food, including $73,000 from Super Sol, a kosher supermarket whose founder, Laurence Garber, led Island Child’s board. The special education prekindergarten program prohibits purchases of food. 

Auditors cited what they said were many other improper or fraudulent expenses, including $200,000 in construction, $12,000 to two jewelers, $235,000 to credit-card companies, $44,000 to “cash,” and nearly $200,000 to five fictitious workers.

24 comments :

  1. Another day, another major chillul Hashem. It is no coincidence that the Torah describes stealing as a "to'eivah", the same as it describes homosexuality.

    I'll throw this out to the oilam - is the increase in acceptance of homosexuality as a mere "lifestyle choice" as opposed to abomination somehow connected to the increase of the acceptance of stealing from the government or from the goyim or from each other in our frum communities?

    Just juxtaposing the news.

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    1. I'll go out on a limb and call it a really dumb, idiotic idea.

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  2. Enlighten me, what is the purpose of this post? Is the NYTIMES an accurate media to quote from? Is this a reality? What should we learn or gain from this article?

    The BOTTOM LINE is $$$$$$ is a huge Yetzer Harah, and the pursuit/need/desire to gain it is increasing like wild fire. (Almost as severe as the 'sexual deviance' of our frum world). There is much money available through Federal, State and City programs and grants/loans to schools are abundant. Halachic ramifications need to be installed by Yerei Shamayim on the hows, when, & what to access these funds.

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    1. you answered your own question

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    2. I don't think that is the lesson to learn from this and so more other Chilul HaShem. The lesson is that because of the "Torah only" approach that has become so prevalent in our Chareidi world today, we have become addicted to "programs" here and in Eretz Yisrael. It has perverted us and continues to destroy us. The calculus of how the "frum" world is growing should not be counting the number of "black hats", but how many people are "Yoshor"!I am afraid by this calculus we are not nearly as large as we should be.

      These programs and "free money" is a Mageifa. When people don't have to "earn" their money, they don't value it, and when they don't value it, they come to steal it... of course with "Frumkeit"... it's for a Yeshiva. Let's hope we will all learn this lesson before it is too late.

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    3. These programs and "free money" is a Mageifa.

      True. But when there is no yirat Shamayim and yashrut about money, programs whether public or private can be a mageifa.

      With regard to public programs, what is often the case is that the legislator(s) who come up with the programs come up with them based on the representations of favored activists who have a pet project; the legislation is then crafted with "objective criteria" to fit the pet project, often without regards to oversight and quality control (because it's favored activists....)
      Clever people then figure out how to meet the objective criteria for their own ends; the ones who are too clever by half then figure out how to appear to meet the criteria without actually wasting money on providing the services. Then there are scandals and handwringing about "gaming the system."

      The thing is, "gaming the system" IS the system. Governments that are seen and see themselves as sources of funding are a michshol when it comes to corruption.

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    4. "Free money" isn't the problem. A lack of "soneh matanos yichiyeh" is the problem.
      Time was a person felt proud to earn a living and disdained being on charity. For too many people, Jewish and gentile, religious and secular, this has become a joke. That's the problem.

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    5. Yes and Yes.
      Except stealing of money and dishonesty is not a new magafiah, only connected to the "Torah ONLY" society,,, it is a neglected inyan. Teaching EMES, INTEGRITY is not a well-0iled subject. (surely not as exciting as Tzinuus, Kashrut, Anti-tzioni, etc.)

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    6. No one should be surprised that this is happening, it is an explicit Gemara (Kiddushin 30b):
      ר' יהודה אומר כל שאינו מלמד בנו אומנות מלמדו ליסטות

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  3. As the old joke goes: If "Thou shalt not steal" was in the Nekudas HaKesef someone at the back of Yoreh Deah it would be a well-known rule. But because it's written b'feirush in the Torah no one has ever heard of it or thinks it applies to them.
    This story is simply an example of the new "Orthodoxy", one in which ritual behaviour is the only thing one has to engage in to be considered a good Torah-true Jew.

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  4. Somebody once told me you can't judge Judaism by the Jews. How right he was!

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  5. I feel bad for the parents in Far Rockaway/5-towns who have to send their kids to this school run by this person. How could they keep a straight face when they get that dinner journal ad thingy in the mail. Do they give a special emes v'emunah award?

    Sorry I keep posting these snippy comments. I don't live in that community, but my friends do, and it just hits home too much. My wife works for the NYC DOE, and she's watching another jewish owned agency we suspect of doing the same thing. Should I call DiNapoli?

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  6. Hey Mikey, thanks for stretching your intellectual capacity to come up with the word dumb.

    I was being serious - there are not too many things the Torah goes out of its way to label a to'eivah. There must be some relationship. If you don't think our actions have any negative or positive effect on the world around us, you don't subscribe to any of what the ba'alei mussar teach. You also reject our place as the Am Hanivchar, which is not an award but a heft of responsibility that is tied to us. Light unto nations and all that...

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  7. I agree with Torah Truth. The concept of taking charity/money from anyone at any expense when it is in the interests of Torah and frumkeit is the root cause of this growing phenomena. See the sugya in Berachos about learning full time and what Rashi says there: If I remember correctly he says that the problem with learning full time, is suprisingly that it will lead to gneiva. That is one of the reasons I think that Rav Eidonsohn's post about the change in political leadership and the removal of the chareidim will actually help our charedi societies move back to a more balanced and sustainable future - where the concepts of self respect will be brought back in as a normal human trait.

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    1. It's not just a Rashi in Berachos, it is an explicit Gemara (Kiddushin 30b):
      ר' יהודה אומר כל שאינו מלמד בנו אומנות מלמדו ליסטות

      R' Yehuda says, whoever doesn't teach his son a profession is teaching him to be a robber.

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  8. Yoel B on March 21, 2013 at 8:24 PM wrote:

    "...there are scandals and handwringing about 'gaming the system.'

    "The thing is, 'gaming the system' IS the system."
    ______________________

    Finally, the true diagnosis!

    "...in society, as at present constituted, men are greedy of wealth because the conditions of distribution are so unjust that instead of each being sure of enough, many are certain to be condemned to want. It is the 'devil catch the hindmost' of present social adjustments that causes the race and scramble for wealth, in which all considerations of justice, mercy, religion, and sentiment are trampled under foot; in which men forget their own souls, and struggle to the very verge of the grave for what they cannot take beyond. But an equitable distribution of wealth, that would exempt all from the fear of want, would destroy the greed of wealth, just as in polite society the greed of food has been destroyed." -- Henry George, "Progress and Poverty" Book IX, Chapter 4
    "Of the Changes That Would Be Wrought in Social Organization and Social Life" [by the Single Tax on Land Values] http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/George/grgPP39.html#Book%20IX,%20Chapter%204

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  9. The longer any of us treat the government as an easy mark to cheat, the more likely the government and most citizens will turn on us R"L.

    Also, except in limited areas, our "frum" votes have little impact on the outcome of elections, so our practical leverage to keep government goodies (i.e., money legally seized from taxpayers in general to redistribute) flowing, even for worthy recipients, is largely gone.

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  10. Shame on you Daniel. Being from Far Rockaway you could have checked out this story very easily before publishing the lashon hara of the New York Times. One or two phone calls could have connected you with people who have worked with kids for Island Child for many years. Rabbi Hiller is not the owner of Bnos Bais Yaakov - he is the dean and has always insisted that the Board of Directors "own" the school. I am not sure that Island Child is non-profit organization and that the only services it provides is to the US government. I believe it has been around for longer then ten years and provides many different services for different people. These things can be checked out before publishing such stories.

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    1. A rather bizarre comment. He has been accused by the State Comptroller of fraud for millions of dollars and arrested by the FBI and you are upset that I am reporting that the New York Times says he is the owner of Beis Yaakov and not the Dean?!

      Are your out of your mind? The major concern of thestory is the accusations of fraud. I don't have any sources that can tell me that the Comptroller is wrong - do you?

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    2. these facts in the nY times are true. I was a therapist for island child and he definitely defrauded the govt as well as many of his consultants and employees

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    3. Well Daniel you must have some real inside info. As a two days ago Rabbis Hiller was still around Far Rockaway. The FBI I guess hasn't been able to find him!! I assumed that you would understand by my remarks about Rabbi Hiller not being the owner that he is a straight guy and that money wasn't going into his own pocket. As I pointed out Island Child didn't only do work for the US government, it did private work as well. As far as "I was there" I know people who worked for Island Child for 10 years and had no problems.

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  11. wow this is crazy ......un a fruma mit a vissah borid
    what chilul hashem ......its embarrassing

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  12. wow big chutzpa and from a ben torah and a yid with a big beard
    what a big chilul hashem ..... he should be ashamed of him self

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  13. big time cutzpa .. he is ruining the name for good jews

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