15 Are Charged With Defrauding Banks and Other Lenders of $20 Million

F.B.I. Press release

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and George Venizelos, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Carl E. DuBois, the Sheriff of Orange County, today announced the unsealing of an Indictment (the “Indictment”) charging 15 defendants, including 14 defendants with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud in connection with mortgages and other loans secured by properties in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Monroe in Orange County, New York. The defendants include several related members of a family, the Rubins, as well as a real estate attorney and a real estate appraiser.

NY Times     Many of the defendants were on Medicaid and were receiving food stamps. One couple even claimed they were homeless.

Yet, according to the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they secured 25 mortgage loans totaling $20 million for residential properties in Brooklyn, Harlem and Monroe, N.Y., by vastly overstating their income, net worth and the amounts in their bank accounts. A majority of the loans, the authorities said, went into default and were never repaid.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, on Thursday charged 15 men and women, 12 of them members of an extended family, with defrauding banks and other lending institutions out of the $20 million over a period of 10 years by lying about their assets and debts. Among banks said to have been defrauded were Bank of America and Credit Suisse First Boston.

“They played the part of prince or pauper, depending on what scam was being perpetrated,” Mr. Bharara said at a news conference at the federal courthouse here. “People claimed to be millionaires when it suited them and claimed to be homeless when it suited them better.”[...]

A central figure in the scheme, the indictment said, was Irving Rubin, 58, of Brooklyn, who, it said, considered himself a real estate developer. Also indicted were his wife, Desiree, 57; his sons Yehuda, 29, of Monroe, and Joel, 33, of Brooklyn; and his brothers Abraham, 51, Jacob, 41, and Samuel, 59, all of Brooklyn. [...]

One of the $1 million bails was for Abraham Rubin, who the judge noted had served a four-month sentence for trying to bribe a “victim witness” with $500,000 in an unrelated investigation — the case against Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed therapist in Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidic community. Mr. Weberman was found guilty of sexually abusing a young client starting when she was 12. [...]

Fraud in government programs in New York is not excusable but it is not unusual see the following

DNA Information

 An internationally known pianist hid records of his $1 million Hamptons home to swindle the federal government out of thousands of dollars in housing subsidies to pay for a TriBeCa apartment, DNAinfo has learned.

Antonio Fermin, who has performed at Carnegie Hall and worked as a piano teacher, was arrested and pleaded guilty last Thurs., April 5, to illegally receiving $17,815 in Section 8 housing funds from July 2004 to September 2009, after failing to disclose he owned a three-bedroom, 2,700-square-foot hideaway on wooded Ranch Court in Sagaponack, court records showed.

 New York Times 2012

An influential Brooklyn rabbi and onetime chaplain in New York City’s jails who drew notoriety several years ago for arranging a lavish jailhouse bar mitzvah for an inmate’s son pleaded guilty on Tuesday to making false statements in connection with a federal housing fraud scheme.

NY Post

A longtime welfare fraud investigator for city government was fired after pleading guilty to committing housing fraud against the federal government, The Post has learned.

Anti-fraud prober Sylvia Battle-Black, a 17-year veteran of the Human Resources Administration, admitted lying about her income to obtain $62,376 in government-subsidized housing benefits from 2006 to 2011, prosecutors said.

Incredibly, Black for six years didn’t disclose on her applications for Section 8 housing that she was employed as a HRA fraud investigator since 1996. 

NY Sun

A New York City teacher was arrested yesterday and faces charges that she stole almost $40,000 in illegal housing subsidies.

Monique Ellis, 39, is a special education teacher at P.S. 180 in Brooklyn. According to the city's Department of Investigation, she lied about her annual income between 2003 and 2007, allowing her to steal $39,968 from the New York City Housing Development Corp.

Sobering lessons learned by veteran teacher after 2 days shadowing students

Grant Wiggins  The following account comes from a veteran HS teacher who just became a Coach in her building. Because her experience is so vivid and sobering I have kept her identity anonymous. But nothing she describes is any different than my own experience in sitting in HS classes for long periods of time. And this report of course accords fully with the results of our student surveys. 

I have made a terrible mistake.

I waited fourteen years to do something that I should have done my first year of teaching: shadow a student for a day. It was so eye-opening that I wish I could go back to every class of students I ever had right now and change a minimum of ten things – the layout, the lesson plan, the checks for understanding. Most of it!

This is the first year I am working in a school but not teaching my own classes; I am the High School Learning Coach, a new position for the school this year. My job is to work with teachers and admins. to improve student learning outcomes.

As part of getting my feet wet, my principal suggested I “be” a student for two days: I was to shadow and complete all the work of a 10^th grade student on one day and to do the same for a 12^th grade student on another day. My task was to do everything the student was supposed to do: if there was lecture or notes on the board, I copied them as fast I could into my notebook. If there was a Chemistry lab, I did it with my host student. If there was a test, I took it (I passed the Spanish one, but I am certain I failed the business one).

Key Takeaway #1
Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting. [....]

Key Takeaway #2
High School students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90% of their classes.[...]

Key takeaway #3
You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long. [....] 

click the above link for the full article - it is worth reading.Read the followup comments also

Lynching Survivor Thanks Israeli Arab who rescued him

Arutz 7     Moshe German, 47, who survived a lynching attempt on the Taibe bridge Sunday night, met the man who saved him from the mob on Monday, in a heartwarming gesture of gratitude. 

Majdi Baloum, 37, pulled Moshe from his vehicle after an Arab mob began pelting it with rocks, eventually setting it alight. 

Moshe, who recounted his experience in previous interviews to the media, related that he had been hiding under his seat; if Baloum had not pulled him from the vehicle, he likely would have died in the blaze. 

Moshe revisited Taibe, meeting Baloum at the Hydraulic Institute where he works, to thank him.

"You don't understand how moving this is," German told Yediot Aharonot. "I went here via the same road where I was almost killed yesterday. I saw the remains of my car, now just ashes. Images of what happened just flash in front of me all the time. They threw rocks at me, concrete blocks and fireworks. I was terrified." 

"I thought about my wife, Eina, and my sons Roey (16) and Eitan, who is two and-a-half," he continued. "I thought my family would lose me." 

"I tried to hide in my Toyota, but the crowd continued to attack me, and in a moment [Baloum] came up to me yelling, 'come, come!'. I tried to figure out who is calling me, and you pulled me out of your car and into your Jeep. You saved me," Moshe recounted. "I found it hard to comprehend what is happening, but I realized that you were afraid for my life. Even though they threw blocks at your Jeep, you just went faster." 

"Did you understand that you were saving my life?" he asked. [...]

בית דין חרדי באולטימטום למקובל המתחזה: תפרוש מעולם הקבלה או שההקלטה תפורסם

Rotter Forum
Comments on Shtieble report these rumors as untrue. People claim Rabbi Zilberstein denying any such court decision. 

ליאור עמרן

פורסם נובמבר 11, 2014 ב 10:15 AM

היה חשוב לי לשתף
התקשרתי לבית הדין של הרב זילברשיין בחולון, והם שאלו את הרב זילברשיין ואמרו שכבוד הרב לא הוציא פסק שכזה מעולם נגד החלבן, ושהדברים שנאמרו בשמו הם שקר וכזב.
הטלפון של בית הדין של הרב זילברשיין הוא
03-5015809
על כן האמירה הבאה באתר היא מזוייפת:
הפוסק החרדי הרב יצחק זילברשטיין נכנס לעובי הקורה בשבוע האחרון, בית הדין החרדי התכנס והחליט האיש חייב להיות מוקא מהציבור החרדי :”ובערת הרע מקרבך”

Consequently I have removed the item until this is clarified.
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background information about the mekubal
Jewish Press
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Yeshiva World News

Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg: Helping kids kick the pain and fear out of cancer

Editor's note: Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg has been named a 2014 Top 10 CNN Hero. Voting for CNN Hero of the Year continues through Sunday, Nov. 16). All of this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored during CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" -- Sunday, December 7 (8pm ET) on the global networks on CNN.

For 12 years, Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg worked at a camp for children battling cancer.

He often witnessed the pain and discomfort many of them endured while undergoing medical procedures.

"It's really indescribable, what it's like ... to watch a child go through so much pain," said Goldberg, who served as the director of Camp Simcha in New York. "The child looks at you for help and then you end up having to hold them down."

One day, he tried to soothe a young camper who was screaming in pain during treatment. Goldberg, a black belt in Choi Kwang-Do, offered to teach the 5-year-old boy some of the craft.

"In martial arts, you learn that pain is a message that you don't have to listen to," he said. "That lesson is so unbelievably effective."

Goldberg taught the boy some breathing techniques. When the nurse removed the needle after chemotherapy, he said the boy had hardly noticed.

Goldberg realized he was on to something.

"When we are able to breathe through pain and imagine the pain lowering," he said, "the brain has an amazing capacity to put us into a different place."

In 1999, Goldberg founded Kids Kicking Cancer. The program provides free martial arts classes focused on breathing techniques and meditation for children battling serious illnesses. [...]

Complaints against R Barry Freundel were silenced by the label of lashon harah

Washington Post   [....]    About 2000, divisions at Kesher over the rabbi’s behavior became more severe. Some complaints were fairly mundane — that his style was too brusque and that he wasn’t making pastoral visits. A few people alleged that Freundel was diverting money donated for the synagogue to his effort to build a mikvah. Epstein, a past synagogue president, recalled that the conflict was resolved after the board appointed a committee to decide how to spend the money.

At one point, there were enough people bad-mouthing Freundel that some board members drafted a document calling for an end to criticism of the rabbi. The document uses the term “lashon hara,” meaning slanderous, negative talk, which is considered sinful in Judaism.

“We propose to bind ourselves and invite others to do the same . . . to cease to participate in any Lashon Hara, to stop listening to insinuations and attacks, to disassociate ourselves from them, and finally to respond forcefully in opposition to Lashon Hara” against the rabbi, the document stated.

“The majority of the congregation supported him, and the continued sniping was not consistent with the mores of the congregation,” said Epstein, who drafted the letter. People’s criticisms over the years “had no foresight approximating anything like what has happened.”[...]

Princeton Mishandled Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination Cases, U.S. Inquiry Finds

NY Times    A federal investigation into Princeton University’s sexual misconduct and discrimination policies has found that the university violated the law and failed to respond quickly and fairly to students’ complaints.

The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights found that Princeton had not met the standards set forth in Title IX, the 1972 statute mandating gender equality in educational settings. The finding released on Wednesday said that Princeton’s failure “to provide a prompt and equitable response” to allegations of sexual misconduct allowed, in one student’s case, “for the continuation of a hostile environment that limited and denied her access to the education opportunities at the university.”

At the beginning of September, Princeton announced significant changes to the way it would handle sexual misconduct complaints, including lowering the burden of proof they would have to meet. Those changes were intended to bring the university into compliance with federal standards. A resolution agreement that accompanied Wednesday’s finding formalizes what the Office of Civil Rights described as “ongoing and proactive efforts to enhance the effectiveness” of Princeton’s procedures. Putting those changes into effect, the finding said, “will resolve the university’s noncompliance.” [...]

High Court overules lower court ruling saying Rabbis can't overrule Doctors

Arutz 7   An Israeli couple whom the High Court ruled Wednesday took the advice of a rabbi over that of a doctor is going to have to pay all expenses for care of their paralyzed child out of pocket.

The court ruled in favor of the Meuhedet Health Fund, which refused the couple when they sought care for the child, saying that doctors had informed them that the child would be born paralyzed – and that the couple decided not to terminate the wife's pregnancy on advice of the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu z”tl.

According to the fund, a gynecologist who examined the woman told her on her first visit – very early in the pregnancy – that the child would be born with major health problems, and recommended she terminate the pregnancy. The couple then consulted with Rabbi Eliyahu, and decided to keep the child – who was born paralyzed, as diagnosed by the doctor.

The Health Fund refused to pay for care for the child, saying that it was not responsible because the parents did not take the advice of their doctor. The parents sued, claiming that the doctor had not sufficiently explained the dangers to the child, only the damage that could occur to the mother during her pregnancy.

A lower court ruled in favor of the parents, but the health fund appealed, and on Wednesday the High Court ruled in their favor. According to the court, it is unlikely that the doctor did not explain the dangers to the parents, and that they needed to be held responsible for rejecting the doctor's advice. [...]

Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn: New blog devoted to marriage and divorce issues

My name is Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn. I studied under Gedolim Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb Moshe Feinstein, and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev, all of them zt"l. Reb Elyashev zt"l gave me his name for my Gittin Beth Din. He told me he was very concerned about the problems of divorcing parents, and sometimes this results is an invalid GET, when it is coerced especially when a civil court does this. I used to put a lot of material on my brother's blog, Daas Torah (Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn from Jerusalem). I just discussed with my brother about the need for me to make a new blog totally devoted to problems with marriage and divorce, children, court, etc.

I started it today as
www.torahhalacha.blogspot.com.

If you or anyone has a question in halacha about divorce and Gittin and marriage, please contact me at the above website:

www.torahhalacha.blogspot.com

Thank you,

Dovid Eidensohn

Rethinking challenging kids-where there's a skill there's a way

Schlesinger Twins: Beth asks that you send an email to Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky

http://helpbeth.org/email-to-rabbi-moshe-kotlarsky/

Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky is the director of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries and Vice-Chairman of Merkos L’lnyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Rabbi Kotlarsky travels the globe establishing Jewish centers for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, becoming known as “Judaism’s Globe Trotter”. In many countries he is the public face of Chabad, visiting heads of state and opening new Chabad centers worldwide.

Please send your letter to Rabbi Kotlarsky at rmk@kinus.com or kinus@kinus.com  - or copy the following and send it to him =============================================== SUBJECT: Rabbi Kotlarsky - your help is urgently required Dear Rabbi Kotlarsky Shlita, It is with great reluctance that the step has been taken to approach you in this way. All other avenues to raise this matter to the highest echelons in Chabad have so far been fruitless which is why you are receiving this message. I understand this is a busy time in your calendar, shortly before the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim (Kinus), when so many emissaries come to Crown Heights from all over the world. But it is precisely at this time, when such a pool of immense talent and global influence is concentrated in one place, that the biggest breakthroughs can be achieved. In July 2011, 2 year-old twins Samuel and Benjamin Schlesinger, were ripped from their mother's arms and handed to their father, Mr Michael Schlesinger, on the immediate instructions of an Austrian court ruling. Their mother, Beth Schlesinger (nee Alexander), has been awarded pitiful visiting rights and hasn't seen her children on Shabbos or Yom Tov since this time (with the exception of one Shabbos in August 2014). The courts in Vienna have behaved extremely strangely in the father's favour throughout the proceedings by discounting important facts, twisting medical reports and other evidence of bias. The response has been a global campaign backed by a Beis Din, multiple Rabbis, British Politicians and many supporters globally. See helpbeth.org An anonymous Chabad posek has stated that these children should be living under the custody of their mother on the basis of a handwritten note written by the Rebbe himself: http://helpbeth.org/schlesinger-twins-the-lubavitcher-rebbe-held-strongly-that-the-mother-should-get-custody/ In an unusual move, Rabbi Jacob Biderman, the head of Chabad in Austria, voluntarily involved himself in the court case some time ago. Unfortunately, the father still has sole custody of the twins and he regularly cancels the few visits awarded by the court to the mother. We urge the Chabad leadership and the greater Chabad movement to stand behind Rabbi Biderman and provide him with all the tools he needs to be able to contribute further to the court case such that the mother's plight is accurately presented and that the judge should revisit her custody and visitation rulings. In this way it is hoped the custody arrangement will be revised and the children can have a better childhood than the one they currently face. Chabad do wonderful work in some of the most inaccessible places on earth and we hope they continue to have resounding success as they have done over so many years. I am sure I don't speak alone when I say I would like to see this success and fantastic reputation continue, without the distraction of the case of the Schlesinger twins in Austria. For more information, please watch this short clip. Wishing you and your Shluchim every Hazlacha. Yours your name and address

=====================================

Here is a video of Rabbi Kotlarsky speaking at this annual conference in 2012. He quotes a previous Lubavitcher Rebbe in the his address saying “no matter how engrossed we may be, in whatever it may be, we may never fail to hear the cry of a child”. We can only hope he hears the cries of Samuel and Benjamin Schlesinger in Vienna.

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