A Bishop’s Words
Editorial: December 6, 2009
In the end it was not the power of repentance or compassion that compelled the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., to release more than 12,000 pages of documents relating to lawsuits alleging decades of sexual abuse of children by its priests.
It was a court order!
The diocese had spent seven years fighting a lawsuit brought by The New York Times and three other newspapers to unseal the records in 23 lawsuits involving accusations against seven priests. The diocese, which settled those cases in 2002, was ready to battle all the way to the United States Supreme Court to keep the archive secret. It lost in October, when the justices declined to hear its appeal.
Much about those cases was known, and the documents do not greatly revise our knowledge about the scandal that engulfed the entire church after erupting in Boston in 2002. The accounts of priests preying on children, being moved among parishes and shielded by their bishops while their accusers were ignored or bullied into silence, are a familiar, awful story.
But still it is hard not to feel a chill reading the testimony from two depositions given in 1997 and 1999 by Edward Egan, who was then bishop of Bridgeport and later named a cardinal and archbishop of New York. As he skirmishes with lawyers, he betrays a distressing tendency to disbelieve accusers and to shuck off blame.
He responds to accounts of abuse not with shame but skepticism, and exhibits the keen instinct for fraternal self-protection that reliably put shepherds ahead of the traumatized flock.
Referring to the Rev. Raymond Pcolka, whom 12 former parishioners accused of abuses involving oral and anal sex and beatings, Bishop Egan said: “I am not aware of those things. I am aware of the claims of those things, the allegations of those things. I am aware that there are a number of people who know one another, some are related to one another, have the same lawyers and so forth.”
Absent in those pages is a sense of understanding of the true scope of the tragedy. Compare Bishop Egan’s words with those of the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who, after the release of a recent report detailing years of abuse and cover-ups in Ireland, said:
“The sexual abuse of a child is and always was a crime in civil law; it is and always was a crime in canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the report is that while church leaders — bishops and religious superiors — failed, almost every parent who came to the diocese to report abuse clearly understood the awfulness of what was involved.”
Bishop Egan, with institutional pride, looks at the relatively low rate of proven abuse cases as a sort of perverse accomplishment.
“It’s marvelous,” he said, “when you think of the hundreds and hundreds of priests and how very few have even been accused, and how very few have even come close to having anyone prove anything.”
32 comments:
WASHINGTON (AP) Lawyer: Videos offer no evidence of pattern of illegal conduct by community organizing group ACORN.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/religion-values/story/1369300.html
Bruno, Former Albany Leader, Convicted of Corruption
1 minute ago
Joseph L. Bruno, the former top Republican in New York State, is facing up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine after being convicted of two felony counts.
JWB says:
Just a comment on the Passaic, NJ sexual abuse forum held (see the article Orthodox moves to end silence on sex abuse By Zach Patberg, Staff Writer, November 28, 2009):
Almost 45 years ago convicted and confessed Rabbi (Yomtov Lipa) Lewis Brenner, was the principal of Hillel Academy, Passaic, N.J. and addressed the Regional Hebrew PTA conference (see the Hartford Courant in November 1964) as an honored speaker.
Now Brenner stands exposed and so do many others like him and so will more like him shortly.
The survivors are standing and speaking with honor.
The abusers are silent, running and hiding without any honor.
Passaic, N.J. 2009 is only a small taste of what is coming to every Jewish community and institution worldwide. 1964 is no more.
We will expose all of the monsters. There is nowhere for the molesters to run to and nowhere to hide. We will drag them into the light of day.
Welcome to our revolution.
JWB, how dare you mention 1964 while ignoring the Black Civil Rights milestone that same year!
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Elliott Broidy, founder of Markstone Capital Partners, pleaded guilty to making almost $1 million in illegal payments to obtain favors from New York officials, the fifth conviction won by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in his probe of state pension fund corruption.
Broidy, who has been active in Republican politics and Jewish charities, agreed to cooperate in Cuomo’s probe. He faces four years in prison and will forfeit $18 million in fees earned from pension fund investments. Cuomo said Broidy bribed four fund officials, including former New York state chief investment officer David Loglisci. Broidy will be sentenced June 10. Loglisci, who was indicted in March, has pleaded not guilty.
“This is an old-fashioned payoff-of-state-officials case,” Cuomo said on a teleconference call yesterday. “This is effectively bribery of state officials and not just one.”
Broidy has also been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of failing to provide documents the SEC says it needs to pursue its own probe into so-called pay for play.
Broidy paid more than $90,000 for rent and living expenses as well as unspecified hospital bills for the girlfriend of a senior official in the Comptroller’s office, along with monthly payments totaling $44,000 to a relative of the girlfriend, Cuomo said. Broidy also paid about $75,000 for luxury travel to Israel and Italy for a senior official and his relatives, Cuomo said.
“So you can see the depth of the corruption in this case,” Cuomo said. He said there was a “culture of corruption” at the pension fund.
Former Comptroller Hevesi was the official who took the trips to Italy and Israel, a person familiar with the matter said.
Broidy, a former accountant at Arthur Andersen LLP, was appointed by George W. Bush to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has served on the United States Homeland Security Advisory Council, the Future of Terrorism Task Force and the Los Angeles City Fire and Police Pension Fund, according to Markstone’s Web site. He resigned from the Fire and Police fund in May.
He also was a trustee of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles and a founding member of the board of the California-Israel Chamber of Commerce, which promotes trade with Israel, according to the Web site.
Robin Rosenzweig, Broidy’s wife, contributed $80,000 to Hevesi’s comptroller campaigns between 2002 and 2004, according to New York state Board of Elections data.
By The Associated Press
12.07.2009 1:01pm EST
(San Francisco) Two of Congress’s three openly gay members said Saturday that the U.S. House is poised to pass bills to provide health coverage for the same-sex partners of gay federal workers and to protect all gay and transgender employees from job discrimination.
Speaking to an international conference of gay politicians in San Francisco, U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and (freye Yid) Jared Polis, D-Colo., said they expect a domestic partner benefits bill to come up for a vote by the end of the year and the employment bill to reach the floor early in 2010.
The lawmakers said they are also confident that the House will include in the annual military spending bill next year a provision to repeal the law that bans gays from serving in the U.S. military. All the measures face a harder time in the Senate following the death of longtime ally Sen. Edward Kennedy, but Baldwin and Polis said they remained optimistic.
“I’m hopeful we will see those three pieces of legislation make it all the way, or damn close,” said Baldwin, who is sponsoring the federal worker domestic partner bill.
Office of Personnel Management director John Berry, the Obama administration’s highest ranking gay appointee, told the conference that the president strongly supports the trio of gay rights measures.
Including transgender workers as part of the legislation to ban job discrimination and lifting the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gay service members may especially meet opposition in Congress, Berry said. But he said that with a Democrat in the White House and Democratic majorities controlling the House and the Senate, victories were “within our grasp.”
“The tide of public opinion is in our favor. The forces of intolerance are on the run. We have a president who has been clear in his support for our community and in his commitment to our equality,” Berry said. “This is the best opportunity we will ever have as a community, and shame on us if we don’t succeed.”
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Ed Boks as the Director of Animal Services even though Boks had been fired from his two previous jobs for poor performance. After many, many mistakes and costly lawsuits the Mayor continued to stand by his appointment. Ultimately City Council made a motion of "no confidence" in Ed Boks' leadership in 2009 and demanded that he be fired. Finally Boks was forced to resign. Why did the Mayor appoint Ed Boks, a man with no college education and a bad track record? It seems a local billionaire offered Villaraigosa $10,000,000 if he would hire Boks, and the Mayor accepted.
During this time local billionaire Dr. Gary Michelson became involved. Orthopedic surgeon Michelson is known for winning a 1.3 billion dollar lawsuit settlement against Medtronic over a patent dispute. He started the Found Animals Foundation after the settlement to help reduce pet overpopulation. Forbes magazine refers to Michelson as the "animal nut." He is locally known for letting his unneutered dog roam the streets, racking up multiple dog off-leash tickets and walking around LA in tank tops to show off his veiny biceps.
Michelson met with local animal activists in mid 2005 at his home. Besides meeting with moderate activists Michelson also met with militant activists. Two such militant activists were Jerry Vlasak, the Press Officer for the Animal Liberation Front and Pam Ferdin, the head of Animal Defense League. ADL had been attacking the City for years. The local ALF cell targeted the previous Directors and Mayor with death threats, smoke bombs, graffiti and other acts of vandalism.
Michelson set up an appointment with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor Jimmy Blackman. Michelson asked Villaraigosa to appoint Ed Boks. The Mayor and his aides had never heard of Ed Boks. Then Michelson offered him $10,000,000 if he would appoint Boks. Without thoroughly checking out Boks' background the Mayor agreed. Even after many others stated that Boks had a murky past based on faked numbers, had no college education, was just sued for racial discrimination and was fired from his previous two positions, the Mayor officially appointed Boks January 3, 2006.
Within a few months the complaints began. Boks was overcrowding cages to lower his euthanasia rate on paper. Animals were dying of disease or cage fights in record numbers. Boks gave away animals for free to improve his numbers which caused already limited revenue to plummet. He tried to hold a "Hooters for Neuters" bikini contest and was forced by women's groups to cancel the event. He started other programs with no City approvals and had to terminate them. He made a derogatory comment about Jewish people in a press release. Boks started controversy with his blogs viciously attacking any and all detractors.
Finally, after an expensive settlement in Boks' sexual harassment lawsuit the City Council made a motion of "no confidence" in Ed Boks. The councilmembers berated Boks over and over for his poor performance and major public fiascos.
NEW YORK, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lawyers for the Bigio family, Jewish Egyptians whose property was seized by the Egyptian government in a 1960s program to rid the country of its Jewish population, are demanding summary judgment and a jury trial to establish damages against Coca-Cola for exploiting "for immense profit" property that Coca Cola has been occupying since 1994 with the knowledge that the property was taken unlawfully from the Bigios. In a brief filed today in federal district court, the Bigios - responding to the Court's request for supplemental briefing - spelled out the extensive web of international laws violated by the Nasser regime's anti-Jewish campaign which included the nationalization of the Bigios' property in 1962.
The Egyptian government has acknowledged that the property was seized illegally and rightfully belongs to the Bigios. A federal court of appeals has twice rejected technical jurisdictional contentions made by Coca-Cola. The case has been before the courts for 12 years.
"Coca-Cola is the occupier of stolen property," said attorneys for the Bigios. "Coca-Cola has been stonewalling for years, hiding behind a veil of artificial and inapplicable legalisms and it will now be able to respond to our latest brief only by denying that Egyptian Jews were persecuted by the Nasser regime. If it makes such an argument, Coca-Cola will be engaging in the same conduct as Holocaust deniers. Such flagrant behavior will not hold up in the court of public opinion. It is time for Coca-Cola to acknowledge that the property belongs to the Bigios, was unlawfully confiscated from them, and compensate them for its occupancy and use."
Coca-Cola was aware that the Bigios owned the land, buildings, business and machinery involved in this case because the two companies did business together for more than 20 years prior to the seizure of the properties under the ethnic cleansing campaign of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. In 1965, the Bigio family, left destitute by the seizure of their property and business, immigrated, as stateless persons, to Montreal where they now reside.
In 1994, after it was informed by the Bigio family of the Egyptian government's determination that the family owned the property, Coca-Cola took control of the property under various forms of ownership of Egyptian companies bearing the Coca-Cola name.
The Bigios filed a request for summary judgment September 14. Oral arguments were heard November 10. The letter brief responds to the judge's request for legal authority demonstrating that the Egyptian government's nationalization of the disputed property in 1962 violated international law.
The Bigios are represented by Nathan Lewin and Alyza D. Lewin of Lewin & Lewin LLP; and Sherrie R. Savett, Arthur M. Stock, Douglas M. Risen and Shoshana M. Savett of Berger & Montague, P.C.
Speaking of lawsuits, it's taking one to get the truth out of the Brooklyn D.A. about the Mondrowitz case.
As you probably know, D.A. Charles Hynes has been publicly claiming to have been pressing for Mondrowitz's extradition all along, and in fact to have persuaded the State Dept. to have rewritten its extradition treaty with Israel for the purpose of bringing Mondrowitz back. I made a FOIL request (over two years ago) to get the evidence to show whether those claims are true or false. (For many reasons, I don't believe them.)
Hynes' office refused to turn over a single document to me, so I was forced to make first an administrative appeal and then to file a lawsuit.
Now Justice David Vaughan of Supreme Court, Kings County has ruled in my favor, ordering the D.A. to turn over to me all extradition-related documents about Mondrowitz from September 1993 to the present. The court's decision is available on Failed Messiah under "What Is the Brooklyn D.A. Hiding?"
Unfortunately, the office has informed me that they will file a motion to reargue AND a notice of appeal. So they are still resisting disclosure.
Just as the Catholic Church covered up its record on sex offenders, Mondrowitz's protectors -- in the rabbinate, in Orthodox institutions, in the law enforcement system -- are covering up the history of their actions. And only determined action will pry the truth out of them.
I intend to keep readers up to date on any progress with this case, and related matters.
Parents claim the U.S. Air Force knew of Lt. Col. William Paliwoda's "sexual assaults and inappropriate touching of infants," but transferred him to "the location across the street" from them, allowing him to sexually assault their child. They demand punitive damages in Trenton, N.J., Federal Court.
President Obama's new anti-Semitism czar was a 1960s anti-war activist and community organizer whose husband worked with the founder of a socialist party, of which, according to documentary evidence, Obama was a member.
Hannah Rosenthal, a former Health Department regional director under the Clinton administration, started her position last week as the State Department's new special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. She previously headed the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella U.S. Jewish organization.
Rosenthal was a community organizer who became involved in the anti-war and civil-rights movements in the 1960's.
Her husband, Richard Phelps, is a former Wisconsin executive. Phelps worked with professor and socialist activist Joel Rogers.
That same year, while running for a seat in the Illinois Senate as a Democrat, Obama in 1996 actively sought and received the endorsement of the socialist New Party, according to confirmed reports during last year's presidential campaign. Rogers was founder of the New Party.
The New Party worked alongside ACORN. The New Party's aim was to elect politicians who espoused its policies. Among New Party members was radical activist Noam Chomsky.
Obama's campaign last year denied the then–presidential candidate was ever an actual member of the New Party.
But the New Zeal blog dug up copies of New Party News, the party's newspaper, which show Obama posing with New Party leaders, listing him as a New Party member and printing quotes from him as a member.
A former top member of the New Party recounted in a WND e-mail interview Obama's participation with his organization.
"A subcommittee met Obama to see if his stand was the same as ours," recalled Marxist activist Carl Davidson.
"We determined that our views overlapped, and we could endorse his campaign in the Democratic Party," Davidson said.
Davidson is also a notorious far-left activist and former radical national leader in the anti-Vietnam movement. He served as national secretary for the infamous Students for a Democratic Society anti-war group, from which the Weatherman domestic terrorist organization later splintered.
Rosenthal, meanwhile, serves on the board of J Street, a lobby group mostly led by left-leaning Israelis and that receives funds from Arab and Muslim Americans.
J Street supports talks with Hamas, a terrorist group whose charter seeks the destruction of Israel. The group opposes sanctions against Iran and is harshly critical of Israeli anti-terror military actions.
Even the Israeli government has been distancing itself from J Street, with its ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, refusing to attend its annual dinner last month. Israeli Embassy spokesman Yoni Peled told the Jerusalem Post his government has "concern over J Street policies that could impair Israel's interests."
The Powerline blog previously documented how far-leftist Israelis are influential in the J Street leadership, including former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg, who generated controversy when he stated, "To define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end."
Another key J Street member, Mideast expert Henry Siegman, has compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.
Rosenthal had also previously penned an opinion piece in The New York Jewish Week in which she claimed a mainstream Israel-solidarity rally in Washington, D.C., was being "dominated by narrow, ultraconservative views of what it means to be pro-Israel."
In a letter criticizing Rosenthal's depiction of the event, Anti-Defamation League chairman Abe Foxman noted that rally, which took place at the height of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war, included speakers Sen. Harry Reid, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Israeli minister Natan Sharansky.
The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, took note of quotes in which Rosenthal seemed to imply Israeli policies were to blame for anti-Semitism
http://www.vosizneias.com/44512/2009/12/08/spring-valley-ny-new-mayor-sworn-in-village-hires-karben-as-new-attorney
By Tom Shean
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 5, 2009
A federal judge hearing the securities-fraud cases against WexTrust Capital and two of its officers has barred the Norfolk wife of former Chief Operating Officer Joseph Shereshevsky from participating in the distribution of WexTrust assets.
The court-approved plan for distributing what's recovered from the crippled investment company calls for barring some investors who received significant compensation from WexTrust and reducing the investment claims of others.
Shereshevsky's wife, Elka Shereshevsky, received more than $3.8 million of compensation from WexTrust between 2003 and 2008, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in rulings filed Thursday dismissing most claims by investors dissatisfied with the distribution plan.
The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in August 2008 that WexTrust, Joseph Shereshevsky of Norfolk and WexTrust Chairman and CEO Steven Byers of Oak Brook, Ill., bilked investors by diverting more than $100 million of funds to unauthorized uses. Shereshevsky and Byers also face federal charges of criminal securities and mail fraud. Both cases are pending in federal court in Manhattan.
In his rulings, Chin also slashed the investment claim of a former WexTrust employee, Andrea Meltzer, by 90 percent. Meltzer, who worked in the company's Norfolk office, received $267,293 from WexTrust between 2003 and 2008, Chin's rulings said.
Chin also denied claims from Meltzer and two of her uncles, Eugene Kanter and Jack Kanter. The three asked that the distribution plan recognize profits that were promised to them, but not paid, for investments in southern Africa. Chin granted their requests that the distribution plan recognize their investments in an African mining company.
In a separate action, Chin rejected efforts by an investor in WexTrust's commodities funds to delay the distribution of assets. The investor, Martin Malek of Brooklyn, asked that the distribution plan be put on hold while he appealed the court's approval of the plan. Malek's argument failed to convince him that the appeal is likely to succeed, Chin said in a memorandum filed Thursday.
In addition, the public interest weighed against approving Malek's motion, he said. "It would be inequitable to delay recovery for thousands of investors for the benefit of one investor," Chin said.
Malek argued that the plan wrongly lumped together $17.7 million from the WexTrust commodities funds with assets from real estate projects and other holdings. The commodities funds, he said, hadn't been tainted by the fraudulent commingling of funds that affected other WexTrust activities.
The plan calls for providing each investor a pro rata share of all the WexTrust assets recovered rather than a share in the specific WexTrust project that an investor put money into.
WexTrust management routinely commingled investor funds intended for different projects instead of segregating the funds, said the receiver, Timothy Coleman, in explaining the plan. Trying to trace the assets being recovered to specific investors would have been too costly and time-consuming to do, Coleman said.
http://cbs13.com/local/limewire.child.porn.2.1346842.html
A local man is likely to go to prison for years after he says he accidentally downloaded child pornography onto his computer.
Matthew White, 22, said he was surfing for pornography two years ago on Limewire -- a fire sharing application that allows users to trade music, movies, games and pictures -- when he discovered that some of the files he had downloaded were images of children.
Matt claims he quickly erased the files.
"It didn't appeal to me," he said. "I was looking for women my age, so I just wanted to download 'College Girls Gone Wild' and accidentally downloaded underage pornography."
About a year later, FBI agents showed up at his family's home. The family agreed to let agents examine the computer, and at first, they couldn't find anything.
Investigators later were able to recover the deleted images from deep within the hard drive.
"I asked them, 'Where did you get that? I don't remember that.' I asked them, 'Could I access that if I wanted to?'" Matt said. "They said no."
Facing 20 years in prison for possessing child pornography, Matt is pleading guilty on the advice of his public defender in hopes of getting a three and a half year sentence. He will also serve 10 years probation and have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Matt's father says other parents need to be warned about the consequences of stumbling across illicit material.
"One day, you're going to get a knock on the door and have your child taken away for many years," he said.
Matt's court date has been moved to January 8th due to paperwork issues, according to reports.
The FBI could not comment on this specific case, but said if child pornography is ever downloaded accidentally, the user needs to call authorities immediately. They may confiscate your computer, but it's better than the alternative.
Internet searches reveal a large number of complaints from people who say they've accidentally downloaded child pornography through Limewire.
There is a Florida family Levy and their son in law Minkowitz (not the Rubashkin cousins with similar spelling) who are big supporters of Chabad. Three of them are among the top 20 losers with Rothstein's ponzi scheme with about $50 million in losses.
http://www.renatowatches.com/
They own the Renato Watch company.
Shimon Levy allegedly has had deep ties to Israeli Organized crime and spent a year in an Israeli prison for hiding a mob figure suspected of two "grisly murders". In 1997, his partner at the Sea Club Resort on Fort Lauderdale beach, Zvika Yuz, was a victim of a murder which remains unsolved. His son, Ovadya or Ovi contacted the Plantation FL Police Department and began receiving protection during the time Rothstein fled to Morrocco.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/rothsteinchabad1.jpg
Here's a picture of me with Rothstein.
My father also owns the Ramada Sea Club Resort on Fort Lauderdale beach.
His shutef at the Ramada, Zvika Yuz, was shot in the face as he parked his car at the hotel. Yuz, who was himself involved in a huge Ponzi scheme, died a few days later. The suspect, who was wearing a fake beard and carrying a doll, was never caught.
Yuz, an Israeli who lived in Miami, played a significant role in what authorities have described as one of the largest fraud schemes in Florida history.
He was one of about 20 money men who in the late 1980s and early '90s recruited investors for the now defunct Premium Sales of Aventura.
Federal authorities indicted 36 company employees last year alleging the company was a front to bilk 1,800 investors of $300 million.
My father came to the United States almost as soon as he was released from an Israeli prison in 1982. He was granted a visa because U.S. immigration officials didn't know of his Israeli conviction as an accessory to murder after the fact.
The case made national headlines in Israel and caused Levy immigration problems as late as 1989. Former Israeli president Chaim Herzog ordered Levy's criminal records destroyed that year for unexplained reasons. But those records turned up later in a New Jersey civil case against Levy.
Those records also reveal earlier Israeli convictions against Levy for tax evasion, insulting a police officer, giving false testimony to a police officer and suborning perjury by urging a police officer not to prosecute an acquaintance.
http://afrocubaweb.com/news/elevengangsters.htm
Federal authorities are taking seriously an informant's allegations that his murder was tied to South Florida's Israeli underworld -- a complex enterprise allegedly orchestrating the movement of millions in ill-gotten drug proceeds through a myriad of businesses here.
``They have all this drug money they need to clean, and they are looking for any cash business to funnel it through,'' said the federal informant, who has already pleaded guilty to his role in the money laundering. ``Jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, restaurants, strip shopping malls, flea markets, everything. This is just the tip of it.''
... Isaac Benarroch, 64, was being sought for questioning in Yuz's murder because of some threatening letters he sent Yuz four years ago.
Police also suspect that Benarroch shot at a building owned by a friend of Yuz when he was trying to retrieve $600,000 he had lost in a failed investment scheme promoted by Yuz.
Benarroch's partner in a Venezuela tennis club, Ricardo La Bergere, was also shot execution-style in West Palm Beach in February. Neither of the killings has been solved.
Benarroch was a sworn enemy of Yuz. U.S. authorities are more interested in Yuz's circle of friends and their associates, many with ties to a famous list of 11 top Israeli organized crime figures.
The list, leaked to newspapers in 1977 by the Israeli national police, became a news event of Watergate proportions in Israel. Many of those with ties to the list, all proclaiming their innocence, left the country and settled in Florida.
Their business relationships are complex, extend into many facets of South Florida life and have attracted the close attention of investigators.
Among those linked to the infamous list of 11: Eli Tisona, now in the federal lockup in Miami awaiting trial on money-laundering charges; his brother Ezra, convicted for his role in corruption at the flea market; Shalom Genish, a partner at the market and the target of numerous federal probes; and Shimon Levy.
http://afrocubaweb.com/news/elevengangsters.htm
Another is Ilan Kashti, 61, an Israeli jeweler in Miami who has already pleaded guilty to his role in laundering millions for the Cali drug cartel.
Kashti -- whom enemies call a liar and con artist -- has told The Herald and federal authorities that Yuz predicted he would be killed on the orders of ``one of the most dangerous men in the whole east of the United States.''
Kashti has turned government informant in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence and, he says, because his own son has turned against him in favor of the flash and money of the Israeli syndicate. He says the entire operation centers on Eli Tisona.
Eli Tisona, 53, who now owns a condominium at Turnberry Isle, made millions in Israel as head of the country's Wimpy hamburger restaurant chain. He was on the ``list of 11.''
Tisona also owns a fish farm in Bogota, where he was arrested in April. He was then brought to Miami to face a 1995 indictment on charges he masterminded a conspiracy to launder $42 million in New York drug proceeds through Miami jewelry store accounts. He denies the charges.
Five others were also indicted in the scheme, including Tisona's daughter, Kineret Tisona Kashti; his son-in-law, Yehuda Kashti; and Yehuda's father, Ilan Kashti.
Jewelry stores are a favorite way to launder drug money, sources said, because cash is so easily hidden among huge and flexible profit margins.
The Herald twice interviewed Ilan Kashti at his invitation for a total of three hours. He continually demanded money in exchange for the interview and was repeatedly told there would be no payment.
Finally, he broke off communications and would say no more.
Asked if he was frightened for his life, Kashti said, ``No, I'm not scared. I'm careful.''
Then he added, taking out a holstered weapon, ``They let me keep my concealed weapons permit.''
Kashti has refused an offer to enter the federal witness protection program.
http://afrocubaweb.com/news/elevengangsters.htm
Kashti is locked in a bitter feud with his son, who he says calls the shots in Tisona's South Florida crime organization.
Yehuda Kashti, 37, declined to discuss the case with The Herald. But he recently told an Israeli newspaper he has disowned his father.
``I am ashamed, destroyed, broken,'' said the younger Kashti, who is out on bond. ``I take responsibility myself for every day that Eli Tisona sits in prison. It is on my conscience.''
In January, Yehuda Kashti was charged with careless driving after he crashed the gate at his Turnberry Isle condominium complex. The Jeep he was driving was registered to another subject of a federal investigation, Ludwig ``Tarzan'' Fainberg.
Fainberg, manager of a Hialeah strip club called Porky's, was arrested last year on charges he tried to buy a Russian nuclear attack submarine to smuggle drugs from South America.
http://afrocubaweb.com/news/elevengangsters.htm
Shalom Genish -- a man who federal investigators believe is far more dangerous.
Yuz and Eli Tisona had a mutual friend in Genish.
Genish, 50, has acknowledged in court papers that his friendship and business ties to the Tisona family go back more than 20 years. Genish is a millionaire with a self-admitted gambling problem and a penchant for turning up in federal probes of Israeli organized crime.
He once owned the largest construction firm in Israel and hobnobbed with prime ministers, but he was business partners with at least two men on the infamous list of 11.
Now, Genish is a fugitive from his home country on charges of bribery and tax evasion. He could not be reached for comment. His attorneys declined to comment.
``They have nothing,'' Genish said in a 1993 interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedoith Achronoth. ``They have already investigated me from A to Z. Shalom Genish is as clean as a baby.''
Genish and Eli Tisona's brother Ezra -- a professional backgammon player and gambler who was also named on the list -- were the principal partners in the Hialeah/Opa-locka Flea Market.
Ezra Tisona and another partner named Joseph Lazar were convicted of stealing $1 million in fill dirt to develop the market. Lazar was charged with bribing an Opa-locka planning official and took $1,000 to acquire for Genish what turned out to be a forged U.S. passport. Two other Israelis connected to the market were charged with money laundering.
In 1990, Lazar was murdered execution-style. Genish remains a suspect in that unsolved killing, investigators say.
Records show that Genish also has ties to Israeli organized crime in New York.
About the time Genish was caught in Nassau, Bahamas, with his fake passport, federal agents in New York were wrapping up their 1990 probe into a Nassau-based Israeli ring whose members were eventually convicted of money laundering, drug trafficking and five execution-style murders.
Genish was never charged criminally, but federal prosecutors accused him of collecting and stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the enterprise. The civil forfeiture case was settled when Genish agreed to testify against one of the murderers in future cases.
A New York jeweler sued Genish and Yuz, among others, for allegedly laundering proceeds from one of several New York robberies through one of Yuz's companies, Carmel Foods, which was set up solely to invest in Premium. Although Yuz was later dropped from the suit, that case is still pending.
Who's this Boro Park lawyer who lost $11 million with Rothstein?
Herman Shtern
5521 11th Ave
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQckuWwpxyGE&pos=7
By Carlyn Kolker, Linda Sandler and David Voreacos
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Banyon Investments LLC, a hedge fund in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, invested $775 million in the alleged $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme run by Scott Rothstein, bankruptcy court records show.
A lawsuit against Rothstein by alleged victims names Banyon and its chief executive officer, George Levin, as co-defendants who knowingly participated in the scheme. Through Banyon funds, Levin invested as much as $75 million a month with Rothstein, buying more than $1.1 billion of legal settlements at a discounted $657 million even though he knew they were phony, according to the lawsuit, which was amended Nov. 25.
Levin, 69, made enough in the retail industry in Philadelphia in the 1960s to retire in Florida at age 32, the Miami Herald reported.
He later invested in real estate in Florida, hotels in Atlantic City and Palm Beach, a timber farm in North Carolina, and a yacht building company in Japan, the Herald said. He also helped reorganize a bankrupt Massachusetts computer company and sold it to Oracle Corp., the newspaper reported.
Banyon’s chief operating officer was Frank J. Preve, who pleaded guilty in 1985 to bank embezzlement, according to the complaint. Preve was sentenced to 10 years probation and a $10,000 fine for falsifying loan documents as part of a scheme that led to losses of more than $2.3 million, according to the complaint, which names him as a defendant.
Rothstein’s 70-lawyer firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler PA, collapsed in the wake of allegations that Rothstein told investors they could buy discounted stakes in settlements of sexual harassment and whistleblower lawsuits, prosecutors said. He told investors they would collect the full proceeds.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQckuWwpxyGE&pos=7
Emess Capital LLC has a claim for $60 million.
Emess, based in Brooklyn, isn’t listed in public telephone directories.
Associated Press - December 7, 2009 8:44 PM ET
PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard says he's suing three men for advertising at least 47 fictitious businesses in the Tucson Yellow Pages.
David Sasson and David Peer, both of Clearwater, Fla., and Gilad Gill of the Bronx, N.Y., are accused of violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.
Court documents say when the fake locksmith companies were called, they would allegedly redirect consumers to the same call center in Florida. The call center would then contact an agent in Arizona to respond to the call.
Goddard alleges the men falsely represented that consumers had the option of contacting numerous locksmith companies, when all calls redirected consumers to the same call center.
The lawsuit seeks restitution for victims and a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation of the Fraud Act.
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202436038755
Irwin Seligsohn, the first New Jersey lawyer to be convicted for using runners to bring in personal injury cases, seems certain to be disbarred.
Seligsohn, 72, now out of prison and on probation, was a no-show on Tuesday at a disciplinary hearing before the state Supreme Court, in which the Office of Attorney Ethics is seeking his permanent ouster from law practice.
Seligsohn, his former partner Allen Goldberger and their now-defunct West Orange, N.J., firm, Seligsohn, Goldberger & Shinrod, were indicted, along with four runners, in April 2005. It marked the first time a lawyer had been charged under a 1999 state law, N.J.S.A. 2C:21-22.1, making it a third-degree crime for a lawyer or health-care worker to employ a runner.
Seligsohn pleaded guilty in August 2007 to third-degree criminal use of runners. He admitted to Essex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Cassini III that he conspired with others to pay $70,000 to operatives who solicited people to claim injuries for staged or non-existent automobile accidents.
He also pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy to commit health-care claims fraud, admitting to representing some of those individuals and filing insurance claims and law suits on their behalf, despite knowledge that they were not injured in accidents.
And he pleaded guilty to third-degree tax fraud, for claiming payments made to runners as tax-deductible investigative expenses.
Seligsohn was sentenced in February 2008 to three years in prison. Goldberger, who faced lesser charges, was admitted into pretrial intervention.
The firm pleaded guilty to tax fraud and second-degree conspiracy and paid a $50,000 fine, shared by Seligsohn and Goldberger. Seligsohn already has paid a $50,000 civil fine.
A November 2005 superseding indictment produced another first: racketeering charges against a lawyer allegedly involved in insurance fraud. It accused Seligsohn of paying an undercover agent $450 for runner services; entering into a retainer agreement with three state undercover agents posing as phony accident victims; and executing a release for a fictitious accident.
In June 2006, yet another indictment charged Seligsohn and the firm with second-degree conspiracy to commit health-care fraud and second-degree health-care claims fraud in connection with four staged accidents.
The Division of Criminal Justice dropped the racketeering charges as part of a plea bargain, and the state agreed to halt the forfeiture of $5 million in alleged ill-gotten gains from the firm.
A former ACORN employee is accused of defrauding Verizon of a half-million dollars. Donnett Davis allegedly added 9,000 Department of Education phone lines to the account of ACORN's office in Brooklyn between 2004 and 2008. Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigations for the city schools, claims she used the lines to qualify for gift certificates through Verizon's small business program.
Davis worked as a parent coordinator at the Acorn High School for Social Justice from 2008 to 2009. She's now been barred from working for the city schools and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office is investigating.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10406914-93.html
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that more than 3,500 sex offenders from his state have been purged from Facebook and MySpace.
Both companies have long had policies against registered sex offenders using their services, but the implementation of New York's new Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act ("E-Stop") has made it easier for the sites to identify perpetrators from the Empire State.
(CNN) -- The next time a married man or woman glances your way, you might think twice before acting on impulse and frolicking between satin sheets. The scorned spouse could sue you.
Yes, you read that right. You, the paramour, can get hit with a lawsuit that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They're known as "alienation of affection" suits, when an "outsider" interferes in a marriage. The suits are allowed in seven states: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.
The law allowing such legal action dates back to antiquated times when a wife was considered the property of a husband. A broken-hearted hubby could go after his wife's lover -- not with a gun, but with the law.
In modern times, the suits are filed for two reasons: money and revenge. Juries in North Carolina have handed out awards in excess of $1 million on multiple occasions.
A Manhattan real estate developer was sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to cough up the $27.2 million she stole in a Ponzi scam, federal prosecutors said. Ivy Woolf-Turk, working through The Kingsland Group, conned more than 100 people out of the money she promised to use to renovate and rent out apartments.
Woolf-Turk, 53, of Port Washington, N.Y., worked with Michael Hershkowitz, of New York City, who pleaded guilty in March. He will be sentenced on Dec. 21.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/nyregion/08marriage.html?hp
That shtik toeavah Steven Goldstein from "Garden State Equality" had the nerve to show up to an ABC News interview wearing a yarmulka. There is no way in the world that he keeps shabbos or kosher. Maybe he got wind of the Lakewood oylam being mefarsem they are against toeavah and he wanted to fool the public into thinking farkert that many frumma Yidden are supporting abominations.
There is a rumor, which I don't believe, that the Lakewood hanhalah is going to be machmir and rule that the issur of supporting a ban on toeyvah also extends to their own chushiver yidn when they do it with children. Lakewood personality R Malkiel biz 100 Kotler denounced the rumor saying they would not contradict the practices of Satmar and other places because of the high value they place on Jewish Unity. He also thanked Rabbi Applegrad for bringing Torah Temimah to Lakewood and leaving the process servers behind in Flatbush.
The special garbage grant they got from Corzine is being used to remove shmutzig slogans spray painted on streets like "the war against toevah starts in our yeshivas," "stop being osek b'tinokim" and "Shua!" However they refused special grants for arson investigators or a sex crimes unit. As Rabbi Salomon explained, we have all the brooms we need. But we could use a thicker carpet or some way of evening out the lumps. He also declared that the nes of chanukah is that one flask of oil is enough to shmear everyone in New Jersey. He decried the frum yidn in Lakewood who ignored the BMG endorsement of Corzine and voted 75% for Christie. He said, you can't fool me about it being about toeyvah. I know perfectly well that it was about corruption. He admonished them to ignore the internet rumors from such places as discussion groups on YeshivahWorldNews and instead listen to the tape of his shmooze on ethics at the Agudah convention. He assured his olam the tapes would be released as soon as they were reviewed by lawyers who specialize in such things at the archdiocese. He shared the halachic wisdom that there is no issue of chukos hagoyim. This is about a practical matter of staying out of jail, not about religious convictions.
False rumors have started that he is humming the tune of give me that old time religion with the words, "give me that old time plea deal: what is good enough for Kolko is good enough for me."
For more of the truth through humor and for more truth come to frum follies. I lose sleep because I spend time writing. Then I lose more time worrying about how to get readers. Come on and visit frumfollies.
Yerachmiel Lopin
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