Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Six Individuals Charged With Participating In Large-Scale Government Benefits Fraud of Section 8, food stamps, Medicaid


Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Mark G. Peters, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), announced today the filing of criminal charges against six defendants for participating in long-running schemes to hide substantial assets and income obtained from significant business and real estate interests in order to attain government benefits designed for low-income individuals. In total, the defendants allegedly obtained more than $1.3 million of government benefits. SHLOMO KUBITSHUK, RACHEL KUBITSHUK, NAFTALI ENGLANDER, and HINDA ENGLANDER were charged in one complaint, and LEIB TEITELBAUM and DEVORAH TEITELBAUM were charged in a separate complaint. The defendants were arrested in Brooklyn this morning and are scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court later today.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “For over a decade, this ring of six defendants allegedly lied to city and federal officials about their financial status in order to obtain benefits that were meant for the needy. The alleged schemes that netted them over a million dollars has been put to an end and the defendants now face federal fraud charges.”

Commissioner Mark G. Peters said: “These defendants were millionaires stealing from the poor, as charged. The defendants fraudulently concealed their wealth to obtain benefits, including Section 8 vouchers intended to help low income New Yorkers find housing, according to the allegations. At a time when affordable housing is scarce, and there is a waiting list for Section 8 vouchers, it is reprehensible that some New Yorkers went without so that these defendants could have still more.”

According to the allegations contained in the Complaints[1]:

From 2001 to 2016, SHLOMO KUBITSHUK, RACHEL KUBITSHUK, NAFTALI ENGLANDER, and HINDA ENGLANDER conspired and engaged in a scheme to obtain government benefits designed for low-income residents, including Section 8 housing subsidies, Medicaid health insurance, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) food stamps, totaling more than $980,000. In connection with applications for these benefits, they failed to disclose substantial income and financial assets, including a portfolio of multimillion-dollar residential real estate properties. The defendants also perpetrated the fraud by providing false income affidavits for each other.

From 2007 to 2016, LEIB TEITELBAUM and DEVORAH TEITELBAUM also conspired and engaged in a scheme to obtain government benefits designed for low-income residents, including Section 8 housing subsidies, Medicaid health insurance, and SNAP food stamps, totaling more than $330,000. In connection with applications for these benefits, they failed to disclose substantial income and financial assets, including a jewelry business and an apartment they owned.

* * *

SHLOMO KUBITSHUK, 38, RACHEL KUBITSHUK, 39, both from Brooklyn, New York, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to steal government funds, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and two counts of theft of government funds, each carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. NAFTALI ENGLANDER, 40, HINDA ENGLANDER, 41, LEIB TEITELBAUM, 39, and DEVORAH TEITELBAUM, 36, all from Brooklyn, New York, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to steal government funds, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and three counts of theft of government funds, each carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentences in these cases are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.

U.S. Attorney Bharara praised the work of DOI and the Criminal Investigators of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eli J. Mark and Thane Rehn are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaints are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

32 comments :

  1. Scary! Nobody thinks that they will be the first example. When I challeng people about the halachic issues involved they generally tell me that there are 2 heteirim. 1- Heter meah rabbonim. 2- Kaivon sheovar veshana naaseh lo keheter.

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  2. I feel they are targeting frum yidden. Listen, I spent 44 months for immigration fraud. If they want to find fraud, they can find it with many Indians who file H1 cases. A lot of them provide fake degrees. Why don't they bust more of them? A former lawyer named larry dressler aka larrynoodles.com whom I met in Otisville says for a fact that Jews are targeted.

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  3. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “For over a decade, this ring of six defendants allegedly lied to city and federal officials about their financial status in order to obtain benefits that were meant for the needy. The alleged schemes that netted them over a million dollars has been put to an end and the defendants now face federal fraud charges.”
    Lying is a clear Torah violation. I quote:
    “You shall not subvert the rights of your needy in their disputes. Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right, for I will not acquit the wrongdoer. Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those who are in the right. (Exodus 23:6-8)
    שמות פרק כג
    (ו) לֹא תַטֶּה מִשְׁפַּט אֶבְיֹנְךָ בְּרִיבוֹ:
    (ז) מִדְּבַר שֶׁקֶר תִּרְחָק וְנָקִי וְצַדִּיק אַל תַּהֲרֹג כִּי לֹא אַצְדִּיק רָשָׁע:
    (ח) וְשֹׁחַד לֹא תִקָּח כִּי הַשֹּׁחַד יְעַוֵּר פִּקְחִים וִיסַלֵּף דִּבְרֵי צַדִּיקִים:
    Also “do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right,” is a clear Torah violation. Hello, admirers and supporters of violent feminism: your lies and violence that may cause death, Heaven forbid, the Torah says: for I will not acquit the wrongdoer.”

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  4. As in Israel, I think these sort of violations are the government's fault. People feel, why be a fool and pay taxes and lose benefits when everyone is laughing all the way to the bank. Governments should invest thousands in tighter control and save millions.

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  5. Did you do the crime or not? If you did then you have nothing to complain about.

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  6. In other words lying, cheating, stealing is perfectly fine if you don't get caught?

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  7. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime! Quite simple really.

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  8. You mention there are two heterim which might cause these people to think what they were doing was not wrong.


    Please can you show me the sources for these two heterim and whether there was a psak issued specifically for these people to be allowed to carry out this fraud?

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  9. Have you never heard Chazal's dictum that a hole calls to the thief or that without fear of the kingdom man would eat his neighbor alive? Locks are needed to keep honest men honest.

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  10. They should have thought about their families before they came up with this stupid scheme. It's not any level of shogeg. Let them get the maximum sentence. Serves them right.

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  11. What they did was wrong and stupid.
    The glee that some people are expressing here is stupid and wrong.

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  12. Just ask someone, anyone.

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  13. I speak this way, because I know that I too have sinned. Not by civil law, but worse than that. To our holy father, master of the universe. I was not a shogeg in the sense that I didn't know that what I was doing was wrong, because I did know. But I was a shogeg because of my flawed human nature. The nature which sometimes gets me to follow the wrong people or the wrong ideas, or just plain the yetzer hora. I am ashamed of myself, and how I wish I would not have done those things. That's why I wrote that we need Moshiach. Because then the world will be a better place, and I too will be better, and so will we all. May Hashem have mercy on all of his children and see our difficulties and smallness, and not judge us harshly chas vesholom but with mercy. Only mercy. Because there is truth to that as I have explained and it can be considered true justice. Rachum badin.

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  14. I wonder whether the perpetrators were expressing glee as they were defrauding the government out of millions.

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  15. The glee that some people are expressing here is stupid and wrong.

    What you claim to be wondering about has no bearing on the stupidity and impropriety of expressing excitement and glee in other people's suffering.

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  16. He has not denied doing the crime. His point is that there is a disparity in enforcement. Respond to the point, why don't you.

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  17. To those who don't get it, the reference to these so-called "heterim" was made tongue in cheek. Of course the rabbi behind them is called Reb Noach. They do what's נח להם.

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  18. The two heterim were said humorously as a joke.

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  19. Disparity of enforcement is not a relevant discussion for this blog post. These people were found breaking the law and were punished according to the state recommendations for those crimes. I fail to see how it is relevant to discuss other groups of people found guilty of similar crimes.

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  20. What gives you the right to be so judgemental and condescending about people whom you do not know?

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  21. It is very relevant. When a law isn't enforced, people learn to expect that this is a law that doesn't get enforced. It becomes as though they have no azhara of the onesh. Then suddenly the law get's enforced on an odd occasion. That is unfair to the one upon whom the law was enforced when such an expectoration and precedent is scarcely present.

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  22. Fraud has always been illegal, everyone knows fraud is illegal. People get arrested for fraudulent crimes every day of the week. There is no way the crimes committed here can be considered legal because they go unpunished. That is simply not the case.

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  23. Even if it is true so what? He did a crime he got punished, there is nothing wrong with that.

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  24. You ignored what I wrote. "It becomes as though they have no azhara of the onesh." Al pi HaTorah you don't punish unless the person has been warned not only that the act is illegal but also that such would be the punishment. The punitive system is a necessary part of upholding the law. People need to know in advance to be afraid of the law. But when a law is not upheld, it gives the message that this will be let by. It is then unfair to suddenly, without expectation and precedent, slap the entire harshness onto someone.

    That's why we shouldn't deport all illegal immigrants, because when they immigrated they figured we would turn a blind eye as we have always done. We have allowed them to stay and build their homes and lives here, and now we want to deport them. We misled them into believing they would allowed to get away with it. And so here.

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  25. What are you talking about?

    The glee and excitement that you're expressing speaks ill of the you, not them.

    The fraud - IF they're convicted, which they haven't been - speaks of them without your excitement. Your excitement speaks exclusively about you, in a negative way.

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  26. People get speeding tickets all the time. If a cop gives only specific people tickets for going 3 MPH over the speed limit, rational people will note the disparity in enforcement. Of course 3 MPH over the limit is illegal. But since cops are being selective about whom to give this ticket to, it is something that rational people will note.

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  27. People of all ethnicities and backgrounds get convicted of fraud every day if the week. What on earth are you talking about? Should people not be convicted of fraud if they are Jewish??? What are you on?

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  28. In secular law, ignorance is no defence. If you want to break the secular law in the country in which you live, you must be prepared to be processed through its punitive system, not the Torah system.

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  29. You're doing a lot of judging but you don't seem to be critical of the people who have caused this chilul hashem in the first place. Your moral compass is way off.

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  30. Do you have the ability to read? Did you not see this line that I wrote several times?

    What they did was wrong and stupid.

    But their follies has no bearing on your deficiencies which are expressing itself in the glee and excitement that you are expressing about their follies. Your glee is a greater chilul Hashem than their wrongdoing, as their wrongdoing was at least beneficial to them. What benefit do you derive in enjoying another man's follies?

    A thief - while 100% wrong - is a lot more understandable than a person who just destroys for the pleasure they get out of the destruction.

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  31. People get speeding tickets every day of the week as well. It is what type of speeding ticket and what type of fraud that is notable. But it is only notable to rational people without an axe to grind.

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