Don't Give Up- Even when the FBI comes to get you!
Rays of Light and Strength for the Hardest Times
By - Rabbi Leib Pinter
Bad news is a challenge.
It can be overwhelming - or it can point the way to growth and strength. This powerful and insightful book is important for everyone - for who has not seen or experienced pain, suffering, tragedy? The author, Rabbi Leib Pinter, is a noted scholar and a man with great sensitivity and experience. He has known, consulted, and read the works of many of the greatest rabbis and spiritual guides of the last two generations - and distilled a wealth of wisdom into a book that provides guidance, hope, and optimism in the face of adversity. Don't Give Up is filled with fascinating stories and anecdotes, sayings and interpretations of the Sages and leaders through the centuries, as well as talks given to communities that were straining to cope with crisis, by contemporary luminaries such as Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon. Profound, interesting and informative, t....
Available at artscroll.com - Discount Code:UOJ
Don't Give Up
Rays of Light and Strength for the Hardest Times
By Rabbi Leib Pinter
List Price: $23.99 - Make checks out to Yeshiva Torah Temimah - Pick up $15 in CASH GELT MEZUMEN - On The Corner Of Ocean Parkway and Caton in Kolko's Plymouth behind the passenger's side rear tire under the trunk in a Rubashkin meat shopping bag (made by illegals).
UOJ Discount: 18% CHAI!
You Pay Only: $15.01 mit a receipt!!
Catalog #: SHTIKDREK-FRIENDOFKOLKO
ISBN: PAYNOTAX-SCREWTHEUSGOVT.
In Stock - ings?: YES
Binding: Hardcover / Pages: 420 / Dimensions: 6" x 9" / Weight: 1.80 LBS
Published: by ArtScroll / Mesorah
Two Former Principals of Olympia Mortgage Indicted on Conspiracy, Wire Fraud and Bank Fraud Charges
May 8, 2008 - 11:28 AM US/Eastern
NEW YORK, May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leib Pinter and Barry Goldstein, two former principals of Olympia Mortgage Corporation, a Brooklyn, N.Y., based mortgage lender, were indicted with conspiracy, wire fraud and bank fraud, Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI, New York Field Division, announced today.
The defendants' initial appearances and arraignments are scheduled later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon.
The indictment charges two fraudulent schemes. In the first, Pinter is charged with fraud in connection with the theft of $44 million of payoff proceeds for refinanced mortgage loans funded by Fannie Mae, a federally chartered mortgage lending company, and serviced by Olympia (the "Fannie Mae Fraud"). In the second, Goldstein is charged with fraud in connection with Olympia's sale of a portfolio of non-performing mortgage loans to Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) using falsified loan histories (the "CSFB Fraud").
According to the indictment, Olympia originated and serviced mortgage loans owned by Fannie Mae, and some of those loans were refinanced through Olympia. When Olympia refinanced a Fannie Mae mortgage loan, Fannie Mae wired the money to an Olympia account. Olympia was then required to pay off the underlying mortgage loan by remitting the outstanding balance to Fannie Mae. Instead, Pinter allegedly misappropriated the proceeds of the refinanced mortgage loan for the benefit of Olympia. When the fraudulent scheme was revealed, Fannie Mae held nearly $44 million in unpaid, but refinanced, underlying mortgage loans from Olympia.
The indictment alleges that Olympia also sold loans to investors, including CSFB, now doing business as Credit Suisse. Prior to purchasing a loan, CSFB required Olympia to produce, among other things, a loan history detailing what payments homeowners made and whether those payments were made on time. Olympia owned several loans for which payments had not been made in a timely manner. In an effort to induce CSFB to purchase these non-performing loans, Goldstein directed Olympia employees to alter delinquent loan histories to reflect that all payments were made in a timely manner. CSFB purchased 12 loans whose histories had been fraudulently altered in this manner.
"Investigating and prosecuting mortgage-related fraud is a priority of the Department of Justice and this office," said U.S. Attorney Campbell. "Those who enrich themselves at the expense of mortgage lenders are on notice that such crimes will not be tolerated."
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Mershon said, "Commercial banks and government loan guarantors assume some risk in assessing mortgage loans. But deliberate misrepresentation by unscrupulous mortgage brokers, lenders or appraisers can trump even determined due diligence. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney are committing more resources than ever to policing the mortgage lending arena."
If convicted of either the conspiracy to commit wire fraud or wire fraud counts, Pinter faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. If convicted of either the conspiracy to commit bank fraud or bank fraud counts, Goldstein faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.
The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan E. Green and Daniel A. Spector.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
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Palestinian Suffering Dampens Israel Celebration
Bessy Reyna
May 16, 2008
A letter published in The Guardian newspaper in England on April 30, signed by 100 British Jews, including Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, expressed why they could not unconditionally celebrate the anniversary.
"We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations."
Bessy Reyna is a free-lance writer whose column appears the third Friday of every month. To leave her a comment about this article, please call 860-241-3165.
Bio
Bessy Reyna is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. She is an award-winning poet whose poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668655306&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Either way, Rubashkin's practices are "deeply embarrassing" said Stern. The company's practices go beyond the "horrible labor and safety records" of the meatpacking industry, Stern said.
"You wonder how people look at themselves in the mirror," said Stern. "It's worse than embarrassing for a company that provides religiously acceptable foods to have this list of supposed allegations."
So far the Orthodox Union which certifies and supervises Agriprocessors, is waiting to follow the lead of the Federal government.
"We'll see where this leads in terms of determinations the government makes," Rabbi Genack told the Jewish Week. "If they find that the company is culpable we will respond.
If the government concludes that the company's owners were culpable, "It certainly would be something we would be concerned about," he said.
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4295/1/Business-as-usual-after-Rubashkin-raid
According to the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, which oversees the supervision of the majority of the county’s kosher restaurants, all of the meat restaurants under its watch use products from Agriprocessors.
Local restaurateurs did not seem worried, though.
Noam Sokolow, owner of Noah’s Ark deli in Teaneck and New York, said that his restaurant relies on Agriprocessors for 10 percent to 20 percent of its meat. The rest comes from a combination of eight different vendors, including Alle Processing, 999, and Westside Foods.
If buying Agriprocessors meat would become problematic, he said, there would be little difficulty in making up the deficit.
"We’ll find a different supplier," he said. "While we’re not very happy to hear what’s going on over there, we know the company and we know the people in the company and we wish them well."
No decision would be made to phase out Agriprocessors based on the company’s legal troubles until there is a clearer picture of what transpired and why, Sokolow said.
"We’ll wait to hear what really happened," he said.
Similarly, Jonathan Speiser, owner of the Dougies Bar-B-Que franchise in Teaneck, said his restaurant relies on Agriprocessors for only 10 percent of its meat.
Any fluctuations in supply would have "no effect on us whatsoever," he said.
"There are many sources out there for meat. I’m not concerned," said Elie Katz, co-owner of Chopstix, which has locations in Teaneck and West Orange. The Chinese take-out orders specific ingredients on occasion, but not enough to make a difference if it has to switch, he said.
Chickies Chicken & French Fry Bar in Teaneck is an exception among RCBC restaurants as it uses no Agriprocessors products in its kitchen. Co-owner Nir Hason said the restaurant used Agriprocessors chicken during its first week in business last year but switched to other companies because of high costs and issues with freshness.
Menachem Lubinsky, founder and president of Lubicom Marketing, a leading analyst of the kosher industry and creator of the annual Kosherfest in Manhattan, said that it is unlikely that Monday’s raid will have a major effect on the supply of kosher meat. Agriprocessors has enough inventory and other plants that could step up production if necessary.
As of Wednesday, Lubinsky said that production at the plant had already increased from when it reopened on Tuesday, and he expected it to be up to full capacity again soon.
As for whether the charges would affect the cost of kosher meat, he said a price increase was already on the way for the entire meat industry.
Also, he said, the average kosher consumer is unlikely to change his or her purchasing habits.
"Some people are pretty disgusted by the whole thing," he said. "Many people are taking the approach [that Agriprocessors has] become a convenient punching bag for many."
For a number of kosher consumers, Lubinsky said, Agriprocessors represents the only choice for kosher meat because other brands are not carried in certain parts of the country.
Other kosher companies will not be able to capitalize on Agriprocessors’ woes by marketing their products as safer or more ethical. The market still feels that Agriprocessors produces a quality product, he said.
"The main issue if I want to buy a kosher product is not ‘Am I buying an ethical product,’" he said. "In real terms it’s not how consumers behave. They [buy] on price and quality. They don’t care if the owner of a company does this or that. As long as it’s safe and good, they’ll buy."
Rabbi Menachem Genack, the head of the Orthodox Union’s kosher supervision department — the largest kosher certification organization in the Agriprocessors’ plants — said that other companies had assured him that they could make up for any shortfall from the Postville plant.
Genack, religious leader of Shomrei Emunah in Englewood, reiterated the O.U.’s policy of leaving matters of immigration and labor standards to the government.
"No one else has the resources to do what the federal government can do," he said.
If Agriprocessors turns out to be criminally liable, Genack said, that could be grounds for withdrawing its kosher certification.
The raid was the result of a six-month investigation by more than a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the departments of labor and agriculture.
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4288/1/For-shame
Monday’s raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa — the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse — will have tremendous implications for kosher consumers all over the country. But the questions raised by the raid should go far beyond, "Where will we get our meat?" We must also ask ourselves what it means to be kosher and how a company that continues to violate both Jewish and civil law has been allowed to call itself a kosher facility.
Agriprocessors has continually demonstrated contempt for the laws of this country. Not only has it been cited repeatedly for unfair labor practices, but it now emerges that many of its allegedly abused employees are illegal immigrants, lacking the standing to complain to outside authorities. In addition, the factory has a long record of both health and safety violations, for which it has paid thousands of dollars in fines. (As regards the recent accusation that the plant was being used for narcotics production, let us hope that this proves to be groundless.)
The plant has also violated Jewish law. Controversial slaughter practices have turned the idea of kashrut, and the humane treatment of animals, on its head. Nor have employees been treated humanely, in direct violation of Jewish teachings. Forcing employees to work 12-hour shifts while denying them a fair wage flies in the face of the ethical treatment required by our sacred texts, while reports of physical mistreatment and verbal abuse of workers are truly shocking.
Agriprocessors has brought shame upon the entire Jewish community.
We urge the Orthodox Union — which says it is awaiting the outcome of the federal investigation — to take strong and immediate action, withdrawing its certification from the plant until the company’s numerous violations have been sorted out and remedied. It is crucial that, as a community, we publicly affirm the need for kosher slaughter to be conducted in such a way that animals, and humans, are accorded respect.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080517/NEWS/805170334/-1/SPORTS09
Ouderkirk said fears were rekindled early Friday when word spread that trucks with the initials "I.C." were in town. Some immigrants feared that meant that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had returned, so they fled back to the church at about 2 a.m.
Ouderkirk said the trucks apparently were from the Illinois Central railroad.
On Friday afternoon, Agriprocessors President Sholom Rubashkin went to the church rectory to talk to Ouderkirk about ways to get paychecks to the workers.
Rubashkin, who has kept a low profile during the week, declined a request for an interview. When asked if he had anything to say, he replied, "Good morning."
Ouderkirk said the company had agreed to pay the money, but was trying to work out the legality of giving checks to people. A local bank agreed to cash the checks if church leaders would sign papers vouching for the people's identities. Officials also were trying to work out a way that spouses could cash paychecks for workers who were in federal custody.
Boog,
why are you going after rabbi Bender?
the word on him is that he is the one guy that cares.
accepts bochurim in his yeshiva that all others give up on !
runs possibly the only vocational program within the walls of a mainstream yeshiva.
graduates of his program are earning 100g plus rather than being all over the streets.
he is a good man who sincerely believes that the internet threatens the ruchniyos of children in a way that has never happened before .
why are you picking on one of the best in the world of chinuch ?
Someone should help R' Weissmandel seek help for his delusions. Tape recordings from the FBI don't lie and it takes a year to get back to former production levels when 800 employees disappear.
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/2008/05/15/the-rabbi-strikes-back/
The rabbi strikes back
Author: Ben Harris
Thursday
May 15,2008
Rabbi Moses Weissmandel, the supervising rabbi at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, called this morning to categorically refute every allegation made this week by government investigators — except the illegal worker business. “That’s not my department,” Weissmandel said.
What is his department is the rabbinical staff, some 40 rabbis responsible for the actual slaughter of meat and for supervising the plant to make sure everything’s kosher. He claimed his rabbis provide round-the-clock supervision, and that none of the allegations – among them that workers were producing drugs on site, and that rabbis abused the workers with meat hooks – are true.
“I categorically say it’s false, it’s not true, it’s a lie,” Weissmandel said. “I have my rabbis supervising 24/7. We supervise every inch of that place in order to be sure that the place is totally kosher.”
I asked if there might be an area of the plant where workers eat or get changed that is not supervised as scrupulously as the places where the meat is produced. Weissmandel acknowledged that there is such a place, but that it didn’t escape the hawk-eyed scrutiny of his rabbis.
“There is a lunch room over there where the workers eat, and changing room,” Weissmandel said. “My rabbis, the supervising rabbis, have instructions to go inside there every so often just to make sure everything is ok over there.”
The government document, a 60-page report on a six-month investigation that was used to get a search warrant for the plant, included allegations that rabbis at the plant had abused workers — taping their eyes shut, hitting them with meat hooks. Weissmandel said that was impossible, and even though he is only on site a few days a month, he said that he knows about everything that happens there.
“If it only happens that one of the rabbis gets in the smallest confrontation with a worker, has a problem, exchange of words, in the hour I know about it,” the rabbi said. “It’s reported to me right away, even the smallest confrontation. I can tell you that I’m 100 percent confident that such abuse never took place. No one ever taped a worker’s eyes with duct tape, it’s such a nonsense it’s impossible.”
Weissmandel further reported that the plant was close to approaching its further production capacity. Some 20 yeshiva students have been recruited from New York to come to Postville, and other workers have been hired through an employment agency.
Leib Tropper is spreading the word that Shmarya and Kelsey wrote a bunch of lies about him.
Tropper claims what actually happened is that the woman in Lexington, Kentucky was mechalel Shabbos befarhesya the first week after her gerus was made official. Tropper says he did not make the decision to nullify her conversion but that it was a psak from his buddy R' Reuven Feinstein.
I must be stupid but what did R' Goldwasser do? I can't find anything!!!
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