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Jews [in pornography]. lukeford.com [See above link], 2001
"Secular Jews play a disproportionate role throughout the sex industry ... Jews accounted for most of the leading male [pornography] performers of the 1970s and '80s ... If the Torah [Pentateutch] command Jews 'to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,' and Judaism strongly opposes porn, why do Jews dominate porn? ... Pornographer Seymore Butts attributes the large number of Jews in porn to the desire for profits. Jews gravitate towards money ... 'I have not yet met a Jewish guy who wasn't horny as a rabbit,' says [Jewish porn star] Nina Hartley, 'Culturally it's OK for Jews to act and for WASPs its different ... Plus, they get to have sex with all these beautiful blonde women ... Where else are you going to get a succession of shiksas [non-Jewish women] to bed you down?'"

Of Fraud and Sex.com. The Industry Standard, November 29, 2000
"Sex.com is one of the more lucrative properties on the Web. InternetNews cited 'some industry experts' as estimating its worth at $250 million. Reuters went with a guesstimate by 'lawyers' of $100 million, and added that court documents indicate that the site's former owner, Stephen Cohen, who had been running the site since 1995, took home $17 million in salary and holds stock options worth $100 million. In the court case, filed in 1998, Gary Kremen accused Stephen Cohen of stealing the domain name that he, Kremen, had first registered in 1994. Cohen, who all the stories noted has done prison time for fraud, allegedly forged a letter that persuaded Network Solutions (dossier) to transfer the name to him in 1995. Cohen then built sex.com into a destination that attracts 25 million visitors a day, according to Reuters. All the reporters noted that the judge had ordered Cohen to pay $25 million into a court-controlled fund until damages (if any) are determined, because the court feared that Cohen was hiding his assets offshore." [Stephen Cohen should not be confused with BENJAMIN Cohen, of England, who, at 18 years of age, became a millionaire with the founding of JewishNet and has since founded cyberbritain (featuring huntforporn.co.uk and dotadults.com). As mere sampling, other premiere Jewish Internet porn moguls include Seattle-based Seth Warshavsky, called "the Bill Gates of Smut" by the Los Angeles Times [Ehrman, M. 6-13-99, p. 26; read The Prince of Porn at wired.com] ; Jonathan Silverstein, the president of Cybererotica [Chairman: Ron Levi]; Peter Asher, the president of Vivid Entertainment Group (the "world's leading producer of adult films and videos" -- founded by Steven Hirsch and David James; read about the VEG porn team in Silicone Valley: When Porn Goes Public at the Industry Standard); and Danni Ashe, one of the major women entrepreneurs in the online porn field -- read the The Brains Behind the Boobs, at wired.com]

Windfall is Anticipated for Winner of Sex.com. Mercury News, December 2, 2000
"When Gary Kremen bought the domain name sex.com in 1994, he didn't plan on being a purveyor of pornography. 'I thought it might be cool,'' he said. 'Maybe I'd get to meet the Dr. Ruths [Dr. Ruth is also Jewish] of the world.' He considered penning an advice column on what women should know about men. But he didn't get around to doing anything with the site. And a year later, it was taken over by a man named Stephen Cohen. For the past several years, the two men have been locked in a legal battle over the site -- a battle that ended Monday when a San Jose federal judge stripped ownership of the choice Web address from Cohen, ruling that he most likely stole the rights to the domain name from Kremen. Cohen, who turned the site into a popular portal to scores of X-rated Web sites, also was ordered to place $25 million into a federal court account until the litigation is completed. Kremen argued in court that the name was stolen from him ... As for the future of sex.com, Kremen hopes to change the site into something classier, focusing more on erotica than pornography."

Hackers Put Pornography on Hamas Web Site. FreeRepublic.com (from Reuters), March 26, 2001
"Hackers invaded the Internet site of the Muslim militant group Hamas to make it show pornography on Tuesday, after the fundamentalist organization claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed three Israelis. Web surfers trying to access www.hamas.org were re-routed automatically to a pay-for-view pornographic site offering a fare ranging from 'kinky co-eds' to 'Latina fetish.' Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the political wing of Hamas, accused Israeli intelligence of being behind what appeared to be the latest attack in an Israeli-Arab cyberwar on the sidelines of a five-month-old Palestinian uprising."

Ruined Reps. Salon.com, June 7, 2000
"Israeli porn producers are hiring actors who look like Egyptian stars ... According to the Nasserist Al-Arabi weekly publication ... film producers are tracking down actors who look like current Egyptian stars, and using them to shoot porn flicks in Israel. The films are then imported to Egypt and screened for paying customers. Appeal is broad for such materials, because Egyptian cinema is the most popular in the Middle East. Al-Arabi said the goal of the porn films was to 'tarnish the reputation of Egyptian film stars.' The original actors are, of course, not pleased with the alternative personas that have been handed to them ... Yusra Alawi told reporters she is asking her attorney to obtain copies of the films and to pursue legal action against those responsible."

Brazilian Police Stake Out Diplomat Accused of Running Kiddie-Porn Ring. Jerusalem Post, July 6, 2000
"Brazilian police continued to surround the Israeli consulate in Rio de Janeiro in the belief that Israeli vice-consul in Rio Aryeh Scher, wanted on suspicion of running a child pornography ring, had taken refuge there. However Foreign Ministry officials said Scher has been en route to Israel for the past two days. Scher, who was at one point consul-general in Rio, was declared a fugitive by Brazilian authorities after a search of his apartment on Tuesday yielded what police officials described as evidence it was used for the manufacture of pornographic material, some of them involving underage girls ... Brazilian authorities notified the Israeli embassy of plans to revoke Scher's diplomatic immunity on Tuesday, prior to the search. By the time police were able to obtain a warrant to search Scher's penthouse, the vice-consul was already on his way back to Israel, where he will face a Foreign Ministry inquiry ... The investigation that culminated in the search of Scher's apartment began when a 17-year-old girl accused Georges Schteinberg, a 40-year-old Hebrew teacher of using her as a model in pornographic pictures and of distributing them on the Internet. Photographs of nude minors posed on a car with diplomatic plates were discovered in a search of Schteinberg's residence earlier in the week, in addition to massive quantities of pornographic material. Police then traced the car in the pictures back to Scher."

Miss Universe Rapist Receives 16-Year Sentence.
Jerusalem Post, December 29, 1999
"Shlomo Nur, who was convicted this fall of raping Miss Universe beauty queen Linor Abergil, was sentenced today to 16 years in prison by a Tel Aviv district court. Shlomo, who was convicted on two counts of rape and another two counts of sodomy, received a suspended sentence of another four years. Shlomo raped Abergil while the beauty queen was in Italy last year working as a model after receiving her crown. The judges, legal observers said, were persuaded that Shlomo had entrapped the young woman unwillingly at a period when she was alone in a foreign country and vulnerable to his approaches."

Heidi Fleiss Gets 3 Years. E Online, January 7, 1997
"A Los Angeles judge gave 'Hollywood madam' Heidi Fleiss 37 months for federal charges of tax evasion and money laundering today, far less than the 7 to 9 years asked by prosecutors. She'll also perform 300 hours of community service and pay a $400 fine ...Since her arrest, Fleiss has opened a legitimate business, a lingerie company. On the other hand, she was also busted for violating probation by using methamphetamine ... Fleiss still faces state charges of pandering (she was convicted in state court in 1994 but ordered to stand trial again after juror misconduct came to light) ... The feds claimed that Fleiss laundered at least $300,000 in illicit income through her family's bank accounts. Her father, pediatrician-to-the-stars Paul Fleiss, pled guilty to income tax evasion for his role in the scheme."

The Fleiss Family Bed. LA Weekly, April 27-May 3, 2001
"'Children are our ultimate investment,' Los Feliz pediatrician Paul Fleiss says at a signing for his newly released book, Sweet Dreams: A Pediatrician’s Secrets for Your Child’s Good Night’s Sleep. 'We want them to grow up strong and smart. Most importantly, we want them to take care of us.' This wish hasn’t always come true for the gray-, curly-headed Fleiss, the father of notorious Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss. Four months after Heidi was convicted on felony pandering charges, authorities charged him with hiding the profits from his daughter’s call-girl ring and with acting as the go-between in the purchase of her home, a $1.6 million spread once owned by Michael Douglas [son of Jewish actor Kirk Douglas]. Dr. Fleiss pleaded guilty to making false statements to the IRS and conspiracy, and received a sentence of three years’ probation and community service, which included volunteering at the Los Angeles Free Clinic. In addition, the medical board put him on probation for one year."

The Still-Happy Hooker. Moment, February 1, 2001
"[Xaviera Holander] invited me to Amsterdam to perform, telling me that she, too, was the child of a Holocaust survivor. When I heard that, I was speechless. I remembered Xaviera Hollander as a blonde, long-legged shiksa, the author of a sexually explicit tell-all book—the most famous prostitute in the world. As it turns out, Hollander (her nom de plume, an homage to her birthplace; she was born Xaviera De Vries) is no shiksa. Her father was a Dutch Jewish psychiatrist ... She took a job at a New York call-girl agency to augment her meager salary, eventually becoming a full-time prostitute. But it was not just an economic decision: 'I loved having sex,' she says. 'Since I was sleeping around every night anyway, I figured I might as well get paid for it.' That’s when a business opportunity came along, and she grabbed it, spending her entire savings—$10,000—on the client list of a retiring Park Avenue madam. She began running a high-end brothel out of a brownstone on the Upper East Side, where her clients included a man who asked a lot of questions, soon arousing Hollander’s suspicion. The man turned out to be Eric Kohn, a Jewish journalist researching a book. The two decided to collaborate on an autobiographical account of Hollander’s life, and one year later The Happy Hooker exploded onto the scene—eventually selling 16 million copies ... She even lived for a while with Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione. But shortly thereafter she came under the scrutiny of the Knapp Commission, which had been set up by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate malpractice and corruption in the New York City Police Department. (The commission was investigating cops who had gone to Hollander’s brothel.) Hollander decided to move to Canada to avoid prosecution ... Addicted to diet pills and unable to control her kleptomania ('I got orgasms from stealing,' she says), she was arrested for stealing a $40 nightgown. That theft, coupled with the fact that she was a confessed criminal in the States, led to her eventual deportation and divorce."

Dicked Around. Metroactive, February 8-14, 1996
"Today [Melvyn] Rosenstein, one of the first and most famous penile enlargement surgeons, faces the end of his career. As of Jan. 25, Rosenstein's medical license was restricted, to protect 'public health and safety' pending a medical board hearing. The celebrated surgeon of schlongs faces permanent suspension from the California Medical Board based on complaints from patients--including Ron Nance--whose enlargements have gone wrong. Ron Nance's story may mark the beginning of the decline of the man they call Dr. Dick ... Melvyn Rosenstein is one of few doctors in the country with his own public relations office ... There is no doubt that Rosenstein, who once bragged of performing up to 10 surgeries per day (he now claims to do five or six), has done more penile-enlargement surgeries than anyone else in the known universe. And Rosenstein has worn the 'Dr. Dick' mantle as only a man who believes he holds the power to bestow manhood in a man's world can. The cocky doctor has shelves filled with phallus fetishes. Ron Nance claims to have seen a sign in Rosenstein's office that read, $56 million in two years!"

The Lady Is a Pornographer. Salon.com, June 26, 2000
""I'm the kink controller here at Click + Drag, which means I have to keep people in line,' says the 40-year-old [Abby] Ehmann. 'I make sure that nothing gets out of control -- just kinky' ... Ehmann has many titles in addition to kink controller. She is the 'editrix' of Extreme Fetish magazine -- dubbed 'The best alternative sex publication in New York' by TimeOut magazine. She is on the board of directors of Feminists for Free Expression, an organization that fights restrictions on free speech, and she is a writer and a performer. But for all her roles, Ehmann has only one mission: to satisfy the appetites of New Yorkers who are not sated by polite and sterile living ... She started a fanzine called Porn Free with the idea of giving away pornography. 'I thought, hey, there's a niche that no one is filling. Of course, it wasn't very profitable.' Ehmann gave up Porn Free after being approached in 1997 by D&L Enterprises, a publishing company, to be the editor of a fetish magazine. It was Ehmann's goal to create a sex publication that would provide fetishists with content suited to their needs. Each monthly issue of Extreme Fetish has a particular theme, such as latex, shoe fetishes or musclebound divas."

When a "Nice Jewish Girl' Gets Embroiled in a Scandal.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, January 30, 1998
"Monica Lewinsky, the 24-year-old former White House intern whose allegations brought on the worst political crisis of the decade, is one of our own. Will a "nice Jewish girl" from a wealthy upwardly mobile family bring down the Clinton White House? The question is too titillating to ignore, too unnerving to bear. This is a question we in the Jewish community must come to grips with on our own. We know this young woman. She is us, a product of our homes. She is our daughter. She is our younger, more naive selves. Don't be fooled by the $1.6 million price tag on the house where she was raised, or the $20,000 vacations or the fancy cars ... In fact, on the surface, America seems not to know or care about Lewinsky except as a variation on a Clinton theme. The tabloids have been kind to date: I have seen not a single mention of Lewinsky's Jewish roots including her start in Los Angeles' Conservative Sinai Temple Hebrew school, where her mother, now called Marcia Lewis, did her turn assisting at Purim and Passover programs. As with Heidi Fleiss ['Madam to the Stars'] and Ron Goldman [murdered with Nicole Simpson, allegedly by OJ Simpson], code words are today used to imply what once would have been explicitly named. 'Beverly Hills' or 'wealthy doctor father' have been allowed to suffice. And yet, this very lack of cultural specificity is dangerous, for a Jewish community that still doesn't know who it is. We have yet to accept our history for its good and its ill. We have yet to find a way to discuss constructively the personal cost of the 20th century on our psyches and our homes: the diaspora, the pogroms, the constant uprooting only to strive again. Silence is deafening. 'There's no Jewish issue here,' I heard over and over the past week. Instead, the Jewish community is shutting down. A Jewish community leader told me he was wearing his gold saxophone pin, hoping the scandal will blow over. On America Online's Jewish Community (keyword: JEWISH) chat last week I repeatedly heard this script: 'Monica's Jewish?' 'Then how Jewish?' 'Does she belong to a synagogue?' 'Well, then does she keep kosher?' This is the kind of denial that can turn into blindness. I understand the impulse. I, too, want this scandal to end. In fact, I am prepared to argue that Clinton's sex life, even with a nice Jewish girl, is his own business. But I'd also argue that the character and lack of judgment of that nice Jewish girl is our business."

Steven Berkoff to Face Rape Rap. Totally Jewish, August 16, 2001
"Actor and playwright Steven Berkoff will face a rape trial in a rare civil action after he lost his battle to have the case dismissed on a legal loophole. Mr Berkoff, 64, will have to fight a £500,000 damages claim brought by an actress who alleges that he sexually assaulted her in 1994. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims the Jewish performer raped and racially abused her."

Dick Morris' Wife Walking Out After 20 Years.
The News Times [from Associated Press], January 6, 1997
"Former [Bill Clinton] presidential adviser Dick Morris [also Jewish] , who resigned after a $200-an-hour prostitute said she had a longtime affair with him, said he is saddened his wife has decided to leave him ... Shortly after her husband resigned in August, Ms. McGann, 48, appeared at his side during a news conference at their Connecticut home. But she was further scandalized by a subsequent report of another Morris infidelity, this one involving a 15-year relationship with a Texas woman that produced a child ... A top political advisor to President Clinton, Morris resigned when Washington prostitute Sherry Rowlands claimed he had hired her many times. She said he even shared sensitive information with her and let her listen in on phone calls with the president."

Bedrooms and Politics: As America Becomes More Forgiving, Honesty May Be the Best Policy When It Comes to Sex Scandals ... Even Gay Ones. The Advocate, March 17, 1998
"When U.S. representative Barney Frank [also Jewish] heard the allegations that Bill Clinton had had an affair with a young White House intern, he must have felt a touch of empathy. The openly gay Democrat from Massachusetts was once embroiled in his own sex scandal, involving a young male prostitute who had launched an escort service out of the basement of Frank's Washington, D.C., town house. When Frank, who had a sexual relationship with the hustler, discovered the enterprise in 1987 -- the same year he made his sexual orientation public -- he threw the man out of his home. Two years later the prostitute, Steve Gobie, went public with the story, plunging Frank into a scandal that many predicted would cost him his political career. But nine years later Frank has been reelected by his suburban Boston district four times and is one of the most powerful and highly regarded members of Congress."

Hard Fall Contrasts with Early Success as a Political Prodigy. Miami Herald, October 27, 1999
"Al Gutman, a garrulous boy wonder in his first election to the Legislature at 25, will officially resign from public office this morning at 40, in a likely finale for a tragic political career once charmed. Havana-born and Jewish, transplanted to Miami as a child, Gutman campaigned with equal ease in Little Havana and Miami Beach. His intimate connection to constituents is credited for a popularity serving him even under indictment, winning him reelection to the state Senate last fall by 300 votes. 'If somebody were profiling the perfect candidate for Al Gutman's Senate district, they would come up with Al Gutman,' says Mary Ellen Miller, chairman of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County. Gutman 'understood and cared about grass-roots politics,' crossing cultural lines 'beautifully' ... Gutman seized powerful posts, serving as chairman of the Senate Health Care Committee, then chairman of Criminal Justice until just last year. He quietly forfeited his leadership, first after controversy over collection of a $500,000 consulting fee in the sale of a Miami HMO while he controlled health care legislation, and later facing criminal charges."

Mia Farrow Slams Woody Allen in Tell-All Book. CNN, February 5, 1997
"Mia Farrow's long-awaited memoir on life with Woody Allen hit bookstores Wednesday, painting the director-comedian as more neurotic than anyone he ever played in one of his films. Forget Valentine's Day. In 'What Falls Away,' Farrow wrote a poison pen letter accusing Allen of bizarre behavior culminating in his seducing one of her adopted daughters and possibly sexually molesting another ... Farrow said that in her years with Allen, 'There were three of us in the relationship: Woody, his shrink and me. No decisions were ever made without her. He didn't even buy sheets without talking to her. I know that part of several sessions went into his switch from polyester-satin to cotton.' In the book Farrow described her shock at first discovering Allen had taken pornographic photos of her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn and then that he was having an affair with the 17-year-old. Farrow also wrote of her 7-year-old daughter Dylan, accusing Allen of sexually molesting her -- a charge Allen strongly denied. He was never charged. Farrow described Allen as being obsessed with Dylan, saying, 'He whispered her awake, he caressed her and entwined his body around her as she watched television, as she played on the floor, as she ate, as she slept. He brought her into bed when he was wearing only his underpants. Twice I made him take his thumb out of her mouth.'

H.G. Lewis Goreography. dvdtalk.com April 27, 2000
"It was when [Herschell Gordon Lewis] answered the siren's call to filmmaking, that his life began to follow a weird-wild path through America's drive-ins. He partnered with exploiteer David F. Friedman for his feature debut in 1960 with The Prime Time (as producer), which chronicled a young woman's quest for excitement at the cost of her virtue. And for the next three years, the duo made many of these sexploitation pictures, of those, only a half-dozen survive today. It was a decidedly prolific genre, and Lewis happened upon a notion that would take he and Friedman along a divergent path, one not merely less traveled, but one completely uncharted. The idea was simple: graphic, on screen G-O-R-E in screaming color. The film was Blood Feast (1963) and it would FOREVER change the horror genre." FURTHER CONTEXT: Not noted here is that Lewis, "an ex-college professor with a Ph.D in English and the self-styled 'Wizard of Gore,' lost most of his capital in the courts when he was arrested for his part in a fraudulent car rental agency, along with a series of other mail fraud convictions, including a fake abortion referral agency and a phony gas-saving device. The arrest brought his filmmaking career to an abrupt end." [BROTTMAN, M., OFFENSIVE FILMS, TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY of CINEMA VOMITIF, Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 180]

Rabbi's Criminal Record Raises Questions in Community.
Raleigh News and Observer [North Carolina], June 18, 2001
"A rabbi who was convicted of a felony 10 years ago said Thursday that he intends to stay in town and minister to students on the University of North Carolina campus. Pinchas Lew, known as Pinny, has faced growing criticism this past month from the Jewish community after the discovery of his involvement in an attempted armed robbery. Lew acknowledged his role as the get-away driver in an armed robbery that took place in Decorah, Iowa. In the course of that robbery, a convenience store clerk was shot but survived. Lew, a Hasidic rabbi, [is] part of the Orthodox Jewish sect known as Lubavitch, lives in a house on Park Place called Chabad where he conducts services ..." AND  Rabbi Facing Assault Charges Will Go on Leave. Raleigh News and Observer, June 17, 20001. "A Hasidic rabbi who was arrested this week and charged with exposing himself to a woman in his home will take a leave of absence from his ministry to students, a colleague said Thursday. Pinchas "Pinny" Lew, 31, was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor assault on a female. A member of the Orthodox Jewish sect Lubavitch, Lew conducted services for University of North Carolina students in his Park Place house. His senior colleague in Charlotte, Yossi Groner, the first Lubavitcher rabbi in the Carolinas, said he received a fax from Lew on Thursday announcing his intention to take a leave of absence."

Rabbi Involved in Robbery Now Accused of Exposure.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 13, 2001
"A North Carolina community, already reeling from the news that a local Chassidic rabbi took part in an armed robbery a decade ago, is now dealing with the rabbi's recent arrest for indecent exposure. Rabbi Pinchas Lew, 31, of Chapel Hill, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges on May 16 after a woman accused him of repeatedly touching his genitals in front of her. The woman, a housekeeper in Lew's home, reportedly said Lew had bolted all the doors and that she feared he planned to assault her. She managed to escape through a back door. The woman filed a complaint with police two days later and Lew was arrested four weeks after the incident. He was released on a $1,000 bond. Lew, married with five children, led religious study and frequently held services in his home for college students ... After the local community learned about the Postville incident [the Iowa town where Lew was involved in the robbery], more than 100 members of the local Jewish community attended a meeting to hear Lew talk about his criminal past. Coincidentally, that meeting occurred on the same day he allegedly assaulted the woman in his home. ."

Rabbi Awaits Trial for Wife's Murder. Jewish Bulletin, July 13, 2001
"The 59-year-old [Rabbi Fred J.] Neulander stands charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the Nov. 1, 1994 bludgeoning death of his wife, Carol, in their Cherry Hill, N.J., home ... If convicted, he could face the death penalty ... Len Jenoff, 54, [is] the former private investigator who came forward in May 2000 and confessed that he and an accomplice, Paul Michael Daniels, 26, had beaten Carol Neulander to death at the rabbi's behest ... At the same time Jenoff alleges the rabbi was talking to him about the possibility of murdering Carol Neulander, Jenoff was fabricating scenarios claiming that he was a CIA agent and was being considered for Israel's espionage agency, the Mossad."

Last in a Series: 'Conspiracy of Silence' Fuels Rabbi's Sexual Misdeeds. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, November 1, 1996
"When women charge sexual exploitation by a rabbi, a conspiracy of silence often ensues. The secrecy protects the perpetrators, leaving victims alienated. Victims who speak out often find themselves ostracized by their religious communities. And they say that when they turn to the rabbi's professional association or their movement's congregational organization, they feel unwelcome ... At the congregational meetings that follow allegations of rabbinic sexual misconduct, synagogue members often ostracize accusers. Some accusers have been called 'liars,' 'whores' and worse, she said ... In one highly publicized case, Michele Samit -- who does not claim to be a victim of rabbinic sexual misconduct -- says her community vilified her after she wrote a book about the relationship between Anita Green and Green's rabbi, Steven Jacobs. Green was the president of Shir Chadash/The New Reform Congregation in Los Angeles when she was murdered in 1990. Her husband, Mel Green, was convicted of ordering the killing, and is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole."

Chassidic Rabbis Implicated in Colombia Drug Raid. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, June 20, 1997
"[Rabbi Bernard 'Beirish'] Grunfeld, 64, president of the Bobover yeshiva and an executive director of Bobov's New York institutions, said nothing as federal prosecutors charged him and 11 others in a conspiracy to launder millions of dollars in illegal drug profits for Colombian drug dealers through the bank accounts of the yeshiva and synagogue of Bobov. The largest Chassidic sect in Boro Park and the second largest in the state after Satmar, it has perhaps as many as 30,000 adherents. The complaint charges that Grunfeld and Rabbi Mahir Reiss, 47, laundered tens of millions in drug money through the bank accounts of the Bobover Yeshiva, Congregation Eitz Chaim and Chaim Shel Shulem, believed to be a free-loan society and apparently located at the Bobover World Headquarters on 47th Street. They are accused also of helping the drug dealers buy an airplane that is commonly used to transport illegal drugs. The rabbis and others allegedly skimmed 15 percent to 18 percent of each transaction for themselves, federal officials said."

Jail Deal for Rabbis in Holcaust Scam. New York Post, August 10, 2001
"A Brooklyn federal judge reluctantly agreed to a plea deal yesterday in which two Brooklyn rabbis - one a former adviser to then-Mayor Ed Koch - will serve 33 months in prison for swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for Holocaust survivors. Noting the 'wanton fraud and venality' of rabbis stealing from Holocaust victims, U.S. District judge Raymond Dearie said he 'might think twice about buying into this agreement,' but said he'd been swayed by the two rabbis' apparent lifelong service to the Hasidic communities in Brooklyn ... Rabbis Jacob Bronner, 51 - who served for 12 years as Koch's unpaid adviser - and Rabbi Efroim Stein, 55, controlled the non-profit Project Social Care. The group received a $2.5 million grant in 1995 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a counseling program 'tailored to meet the needs of elderly Holocaust survivors,' helping them 'deal directly with the Holocaust experience.' The rabbis then paid grant money to the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park in a deal in which the council kicked back the cash to businesses controlled by Bronner and Stein. Several COJO officials were convicted of fraud in the late 1990s. The pair also paid for nonexistent goods and services from companies that also kicked the money back to the rabbis. Funds were also paid to several of Stein's relatives for nonexistent training; that money was then funneled into a Stein-controlled synagogue. Dozens of letters of support detailing the rabbis' charity work in Borough Park were submitted to the court, and a crowd of Hasidim turned out to voice their support."

Rabbi Convicted in Tax Evasion Scheme. The Canadian Jewish News. June 7, 2001
"A Toronto rabbi has been sentenced to a year of house arrest and must pay
a fine of $32,229, in a tax evasion scheme that issued false receipts in the names
of three registered charities ... Only Rabbi Edery's age and poor health saved him from prison."

Veteran Rabbi Resigns in Wake of Only-In-Washington Scandal. Forward, August 10, 2001
"The resignation of a rabbi in suburban Washington over a financial scandal is the latest twist in what reads like a Clinton-era version of 'All the President's Men.' After months of fighting allegations that he misused hundreds of thousands of dollars from a synagogue discretionary fund, Rabbi Jonathan Maltzman, 48, recently announced that he would resign from his position at Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County in Bethesda, Md., effective September 1 ... The resignation comes almost nine months after Rabbi Maltzman, credited with expanding the congregation from 450 to 1,000 families, was confronted about his management of the charitable fund, known as the 'rabbi's discretionary fund.' Leaders of the congregation say that they are hoping to put the controversy behind them. The Montgomery County state prosecutor told reporters, however, that his office is proceeding with its investigation ... Too many questions, opponents said, still remain about why Rabbi Maltzman has only been able to document the charitable use of $20,000 out of the $500,000 distributed from the non-profit fund during the past 11 years. Detractors claim that he initially provided misleading answers when asked about the discretionary fund ... As part of his severance package, Rabbi Maltzman will receive a year's salary with benefits, reportedly worth about $170,000."

A Sentence Without Ending. San Francisco Weekly, January 17, 2001
"Bentzion Pil, the so-called 'used-car rabbi,' was sentenced to nine months in a halfway house for a minor sort of money laundering. One of his lawyers, Michael Stepanian, argued that home detention would be more appropriate for the rabbi than a halfway house. His reasons were pious: An Orthodox Jew has certain needs, like kosher meals or not riding in a car on the Sabbath; conducting shul, or prayers and study, would be more convenient for Pil if he lived at home; and as a resident of a halfway house, the rabbi would not be allowed to "solicit any funds for his ministry ... Soliciting funds -- about $25 million worth, most of which has disappeared -- is why Pil was in court to begin with ... Pil's sentencing was the final step in a long and drawn-out legal case that had charged the rabbi with fraud in collecting and distributing millions of dollars in charitable donations -- but which has left unanswered the question of whatever happened to the money (see 'From Russia With Sleaze,' Postscript, May 31, 2000)."

Local Board of Rabbis Applauds Parole OK.
Jewish Bulletin [of San Francisco], June 29, 2001
"Sixteen years ago, Robert Rosenkrantz shot dead the family friend who cruelly outed him as a homosexual. Last Thursday, a Los Angeles judge ordered Rosenkrantz, now 33, to be released from prison over the vehement objection of Gov. Gray Davis -- but to the delight of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California ... Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum, the Board of Rabbis' executive director, said he was 'delighted to hear the news' of Superior Court Judge Paul Gutman's ruling in Rosenkrantz's favor. And while Rosenkrantz is Jewish, Teitelbaum said the prisoner's religion was not a factor in the board's decision to call for his release."

Israeli Memorial Smuggles Murals. Washington Post. June 20, 2001
"In a secret operation, Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial has smuggled out of Ukraine fragments of murals by Polish-Jewish artist Bruno Schulz, sparking an international controversy. Yad Vashem maintains it was merely exercising its right to preserve the works of a prominent Jewish writer, artist and Holocaust victim, but Ukrainian and Polish officials say their removal was a crime."

Atlanta Strip Club Scandal Marks Return of 'Our Gang.'
[Jewish] Forward, June 29, 2001
"Our boys are still out there, I'm very proud to say,' said Alan Block, a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Pittsburgh and a noted authority on Jewish organized crime in America and overseas. They're running penny-stock scams and providing support for Colombian drug cartels, Mr. Block said. And they're still, in many cases, chummy with the leaders of the old time Italian mob. That is certainly what federal prosecutors are alleging against the flamboyant bar owner Steve Kaplan in the United States district court in Atlanta ... Prosecutors are trying to prove that the flashy 40-year old used his popular Atlanta strip club, the Gold Club, as a front for a prostitution ring that provided high-priced hookers to big name athletes, laundered money and paid protection money to the Gambino crime family in New York ... Over the past several years, Jewish names have surfaced in connection with penny stock scams, in which gangs of aggressive young mobsters corner the market on low-valued stocks, then drive prices up before unloading them ... The ability to adapt has made Jewish mobsters a more difficult target for organized crime investigators ... That sense of internationalism, Mr. Block said, has always been an ace-in-the-hole for Jewish crime syndicates ... Although Jewish mobsters are not immune federal prosecution ... investigators ... have tended to overlook Jewish connections in organized crime, Mr. Block said. The result, he said, is that the Jewish American syndicates have been pretty much free to continue their work in a kind of comfortable anonymity."

Arrest by Interpol Called 'Persecution.' [Jewish] Forward, December 15, 2000
"Lawyers for Russian Jewish philanthropist and press baron Vladimir Gusinsky say that his arrest in Spain this week is political persecution and that he should not be extradited to Russia on fraud charges. Mr. Gusinsky, who fled Russia in July, was arrested on Monday in the Spanish coastal resort of Soto-grande by police acting on a warrant issued by Interpol at Moscow's behest ... Russian prosecutors launched their investigation into Mr. Gusinsky's financial dealings in May, accusing the media mogul of fraud. His supporters, including most Jewish leaders and major opposition politicians, think that the police scrutiny is aimed more at silencing one of the Kremlin's loudest critics ... Mr. Gusinsky, who has business interests in Israel as well as Russia, holds Russian and Israeli citizenship and is a legal resident in Spain."

Mr. Rich's Roster. [Jewish] Forward, February 16, 2001
"A glance at the extraordinary list of Israeli and American Jewish leaders who lined up to support the pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich must raise a host of complex and deeply troubling questions in the mind of even the most casual observer. Mr. Rich's endorsers included leading lights from both sides of Israel's political establishment, a pantheon of Israel's academic, cultural and religious leaders and a brace of the most thoughtful leaders in American Jewish communal life. The scope of Mr. Rich's roster allows only two possible conclusions. One possibility, commonly heard in Washington and around the country, is that the individuals involved were simply willing shills who helped the accused tax cheat escape justice in exchange for a share of his charitable largess. The other possibility is that Mr. Rich's back-channel involvement in Israeli intelligence, through his business dealings in Iran, Sudan and other trouble spots, ran deeper than has been disclosed, and that his pardon was a matter of genuine foreign-policy interest for Israel and the United States. If the first is true, it represents a breathtaking indictment of the top ranks of Israeli and Jewish leadership, who must stand accused of selling their credibility and honor in a pathetic pursuit of cash. If the second is true, then we are witness to a frightening rush to judgment by Washington's political and media establishment. Sadly, both possibilities are all too believable. Few objective observers can disagree that Jewish charitable fund-raising has become a juggernaut in the last generation. The bottom-line in fund-raising campaigns has turned into an absolute that trumps most other considerations in Jewish community decision-making, from the qualities of leadership to moral considerations of how donors earned their dollars. If Mr. Rich's multimillion-dollar Jewish charitable giving were the only reason for his endorsers to line up, it would only be an escalation in a trend that already exists. That said, it would be an escalation of devastating proportions, suggesting that an entire generation of Jewish leadership had utterly lost its moral compass."

Friends in High Places: Marc Rich's Jewish Fans.
[Jewish] Forward, February 16, 2001
"One-hundred people wrote letters that were included in a packet urging a presidential pardon for alleged tax cheat Marc Rich. More than one-half of the letter-writers are from Israel, including cabinet ministers, intelligence officials, mayors, professors and cultural icons. Others from Europe and the United States represent major Jewish organizations and communal institutions, medical institutions, businesses, yeshivas, museums and humanitarian organizations. Most of the organizations mentioned on this list were among those that received funds from Mr. Rich's Doron Foundation for Culture and Education, registered in Israel, or The Marc Rich Foundation, registered in Switzerland."

Shameful Display in Paradise. Jewish Week, February 16, 2001
"President Clinton was a good friend of the Jews, but many of his last-minute pardons were simply outrageous. Among the most indefensible were those granted to Jews, but scarcely a voice of Jewish protest has been heard. Instead, our community and its leaders have remained silent in some cases and actually supported the pardons in others. The result is that we have undermined our community’s moral fabric, jeopardized our political standing, disillusioned our youth and compromised the sacred values of our tradition. In short, the moral stain of this sordid affair has begun to engulf us. The president pardoned four chasidim from the Skverer sect in New Square, N.Y., convicted of robbing the government of $11 million by setting up a fictitious yeshiva to receive federal student aid money. Chasidic leaders and lawyers for the men, with no apparent irony, have justified the commutations on the grounds that many other yeshivas were doing the same thing and that the funds were channeled back into their community rather than being used for personal gain. For Jews, this is not simply another case of fraud and embezzlement. This is a case of religious people inventing an imaginary Torah institution to steal from the government, using the funds for other activities of their religious community and then defending their actions on the grounds that the money did not go directly into their own pocket. Throughout there is an implication that in some way all of this is religiously acceptable. Of course it is not. Their actions are nothing short of a chilul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name. Jews who break the law in God’s name and turn Torah into an instrument of thievery are bringing Judaism into disrepute. However, with the honorable exception of the Orthodox Union’s David Luchins, I cannot find a single example of a religious leader who has spoken out publicly against their reasoning."

Israeli President Faces Criminal Investigation. The Independent [Great Britain], January 21, 2000
"Israel's head of state, Ezer Weizman, became the first President in the nation's 52-year history to be the subject of a criminal inquiry yesterday, for accepting large sums of cash from a reclusive French millionaire while serving in parliament and as a minister. The attorney-general told police to investigate the activities of Mr Weizman, 75, after the Justice Ministry announced it had new evidence that may link him with the business interests of the textile magnate Edouard Saroussi in Israel in the early 1980s. The launch of a police inquiry, in which the tax authorities will also play a role, prompted fresh demands for the resignation of Mr Weizman, whose uncle, Chaim Weizmann, was Israel's first president and who has been a flamboyant and outspoken fixture on the Israeli political scene for decades."

Scandal Probe Paralyzes Israel. The Standard-Times, April 18, 1997
"Defiant in the face of an influence-peddling scandal, Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday to hang tough through calls for his resignation. 'We're not going anywhere,' he told supporters. The government, and efforts to revive the peace process, have virtually stopped while Israelis wait to find out whether prosecutors will follow police advice and charge the prime minister with fraud and breach of trust ... The scandal stems from Mr. Netanyahu's decision in January to appoint Jerusalem lawyer Roni Bar-On as attorney general. Mr. Bar-On resigned after a day in office amid a storm of criticism that he was unqualified. Days later, Israel TV alleged that the appointment was part of a conspiracy by senior officials who expected Mr. Bar-On to end the corruption trial of Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas religious party."

Military Industry Rocked by Scandal. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, March 15, 1996
"Three Israeli military equipment dealers were arrested recently amid allegations of a multimillion dollar bribery and fraud case involving private contractors, the Defense Ministry, and Israel's air force. Sources close to the case said more arrests are expected of ministry officials and army officers."

Kohl's Stricken Party to Expel Former Minister. The Independent [Great Britain], January 18, 2000
"The former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's interior minister was last night set to become the first victim of the widening party financing scandal, as Christian Democrat leaders called an emergency meeting and hinted that heads were about to roll. Manfred Kanther, who embodied the Kohl government's tough stance on law and order, is accused by his colleagues of having known about the illegal transfer of party funds to secret Swiss accounts ... Mr Kanther had claimed that the money from Switzerland and Liechtenstein had come from Jewish benefactors."

Lizzie in Tizzy as She Faces Rap for Hamptons Smash. New York Post, July 9, 2001
"Publicity princess Lizzie Grubman wept in handcuffs yesterday as cops slapped her with nine felony charges for mowing down 16 people at a Hamptons nightclub with a Mercedes-Benz SUV and fleeing the scene. She faces up to 151 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Police said Grubman, 30, had bickered with two bouncers early Saturday morning about where her SUV was parked at the super-trendy Conscience Point Inn, for which she does public-relations work. Afterwards, an angry Grubman intentionally drove the vehicle in reverse, Southhampton Town cops allege. The SUV hit one of the bouncers and 15 other people at the chic club's entrance. The bloody crash left about half the victims - who included friends of Grubman - with broken bones, including one person with a broken pelvis, police said ...A stunned Grubman - daughter of high-powered celebrity lawyer Allen Grubman - was taken away from the scene by pals in another car after she stayed for about 10 minutes. The 2001 Mercedes was left behind."

Einhorn Loses Court Appeal, Attempts Suicide. Philadelphia Inquirer, July 12, 2001
"American fugitive Ira Einhorn lost his last chance under French law to avoid extradition to the United States, and later today tried to slit his throat at his house in southwestern France, his lawyer said. A few hours after that, France agreed to a one-week postponement of the extradition at the request of the European Court of Human Rights, to which Einhorn has appealed. The 61-year-old former anti-war activist, who was convicted in absentia of bludgeoning his girlfriend Holly Maddux to death more than two decades ago in Pennsylvania, broke skin, but suffered no major injury ... A French TV crew invited inside the home found Einhorn sitting in the kitchen, blood soaking his shirt, an open wound at the base of his neck. A doctor bandaged the wound only after Einhorn had given his interview, in which he railed against Prime Minister Lionel Jospin for his predicament. 'He created this. He is responsible.' Einhorn said, pointing to his wound. 'He is sending me back to America, where I will stay for the rest of my life in prison, without mercy.'"

Ronson's Risk. The Independent [Great Britain], October 18, 2000
"Earlier this year [Jewish London real estate mogul Gerald Ronson] was voted "property personality of the year" by the readers of magazine Property Week, despite terrorising scores of hapless surveyors with his gruff temperament for the past 30 years ... The fruits of his labours came as standard-issue business tycoon toys: a luxury yacht, a private jet (with the call sign G-GAEL after his wife Gail, a former model), a fleet of expensive cars and a giant house. Then, suddenly, his life was turned on its head when he was implicated in the Guinness share-rigging scandal and jailed. On release, Mr Ronson faced near-bankruptcy but he staged a remarkable recovery, summoning a delegation of some of the world's richest men to bail him out. Today, Mr Ronson is back at the top of his game with plans to build a £300m skyscraper in the City of London and develop a network of 20 entertainment complexes across Europe."

Berlin Jewish Elections Stir Controversy Over Identity. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, May 30, 1997
"Jewish community elections in Germany are rarely covered in the German media. But the upcoming election in Berlin on June 1 has catapulted the city's Jewish community into the national media spotlight. The stories center on real estate scandals, alleged financial mismanagement of community funds and embittered personal rivalries among community officials. The reports, which cast a shadow on the integrity of some leading members of Germany's largest Jewish community, come just two years before the German government is scheduled to move most of its offices from Bonn to Berlin. Jewish leaders worry that if the negative publicity continues, it could weaken community structures and damage the political influence of Berlin's Jewish community in the German capital."

Councillors Jailed for Vote-Rigging Scam That May Have Cost Labour Control of Hackney. The Independent [Great Britain], April 21, 2001
"Two councillors were jailed yesterday for a massive vote-rigging scandal that may have cost Labour control of a London authority. Police said the plot in the borough of Hackney by the Conservative Isaac Leibowitz and the Liberal Democrat Zev Lieberman was probably the largest attempt to 'subvert the democratic process' yet seen in Britain. Leibowitz, 36, was jailed for six months and Lieberman, 29, for four months after Judge Jeremy Connor said their 'enthusiasm for public office' led to fraud and a violation of the election process. They engineered a 2,000 per cent increase in proxy voting, registered Americans as local voters and tricked pensioners into handing over voting rights."

Paris Jews Worry About Image After Some Are Accused in Scandal. JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), March 5, 2001
"A major scandal has hit the heart of Paris' heavily Jewish clothing district. The affair's ingredients include a pyramid scheme, $80 million, 12 of the 124 accused fleeing to Israel, charges of anti-Semitism and one of France's most popular films. The defendants, a majority of whom are Jews from Morocco and Tunisia who came to France in the 1960s immigration wave, are store owners accused of having swindled French banks for loans to buy non-existent goods. The affair blew open last month when a vast pyramid scheme, which some suggest has been going on for decades, came tumbling down after a series of bank loans were defaulted ... The scheme ended when police began searching for shop owners who had not paid their loans, prompting several of the accused to flee for other countries, including Switzerland and Israel. But the case took on a different tone as the French government accused Israel of knowingly harboring fugitives, despite having signed an international extradition pact. 'By intentionally pursing this policy, Israel removed itself from the family of nations,' said French prosecutor Francois Franchy."

Poland's Jewish Community Grappling with Scandal.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, April 30, 1999
"The Jewish community in Poland is being wracked by a scandal that has forced the country's umbrella Jewish organization to fire its treasurer and downgrade the status of the Jewish communities in Gdansk and Poznan. It involves what the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland termed 'very serious financial irregularities' committed by Gdansk Jewish community Chairman Jakub Szadaj, as well as a 'slanderous campaign' Szadaj has conducted in the mainstream media against the union's board and other Jewish organizations. 'It is an extremely unpleasant, depressing and destructive situation,' Stanislaw Krajewski, a member of the union's board, told JTA from Warsaw. 'The Polish press has begun to report that the Jews are quarreling over money' ... Jewish organizations tried to keep the affair quiet, but after Szadaj was removed from his position as the local JDC-sponsored social relief worker in Gdansk, he gave an interview to a Gdansk newspaper."

Prague Jewish Leaders May Sue Over Charges of Theft.
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), August 2, 2001
"Jewish leaders here are considering legal action over a book published in the United States claiming that huge sums of money 'disappeared' from the Jewish community's coffers over a period of several years. The allegation — which appears in the 1999 book 'The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe: A Travel Guide and Resource Book to Prague, Warsaw, Crakow & Budapest' — was dismissed by the Prague Jewish community, which said its reputation was being damaged. The book's author, New York-based writer Eli Valley, worked in Prague's community for several years organizing cultural and religious events until 1997. In the book, he argued that Prague had become one of the wealthiest Jewish communities in Europe through money received from restituted properties and tourist revenues. He also wrote, 'The enormous amount of capital flowing into the Community has created unprecedented opportunities for corruption and mismanagement. It is an open secret in the Jewish Community that millions of Czech crowns disappear every year. The question remains as to how many individuals are involved in the disappearance.' One million Czech crowns is currently worth about $25,000 ... Valley, the son of a New York rabbi, expressed surprise that the community was contemplating legal action."

Montreal Assailed for Jewish Mob-Member Focus.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, June 6, 1997
"Canadian Jewish groups are demanding an apology from a French Montreal daily for a story they claim is anti-Semitic. The article focused on Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrests of Jewish members of a criminal organization, even though most of the group is not Jewish. The story in the newspaper La Presse ran Wednesday of last week under the headline, 'RCMP Strike a Deadly Blow to a Jewish Criminal Organization.' It described a criminal group led by Montrealers with Jewish-sounding last names. These men, Morris Mayers and Shimon Ben-David, were charged along with Mahmood Hassan and Thomas McKinnon, but La Presse focused on the Jewish identity of the organization. Only seven of the group's 31 members, also suspected of smuggling drugs, are said to be Jewish ... The league sent a letter to Claude Masson, La Presse's assistant publisher, demanding a published apology .... But Masson defended his paper's coverage. 'I think we're playing with words a bit,' he was quoted as saying. 'I think we should be careful about being so politically correct that we can no longer say what is happening in our society.' Masson did say he would reserve judgment until meeting with representatives of Jewish groups. But he pointed out that the leaders of the criminal group have been identified as Jewish by the RCMP, which stated that the main leaders have Jewish or Israeli connections."

What you Won't Read About Michael Harari, Noriega's Israeli Advisor Who Got Away.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, February 1990
"In the spring of 1988, when Colonel Herrara first broke with [Panama dictator Manuel] Noriega and took refuge in Miami, he said of Michael Harari: 'We call him 'Mr. 60 Percent' because he gets that much from any deal that he makes.' Harari took kickbacks from Israeli businessmen seeking to invest in Panama, and split the proceeds with Noriega. Just how profitable that was is indicated by a Panamanian Jewish leader quoted in the Washington Jewish Week of Dec. 28: 'The Israelis working here do not, by and large, reflect well either on Israel or the Panamanian Jewish community. They have practically gained control of the Central Avenue business district. They are engaged in contraband and money laundering. In general, they engage in very aggressive and often unfair business practices. They mainly keep apart from the Jewish community, and have little interest in Panama. They are here to make a lot of money and get out.' ... 'We are seen as disloyal by many,' complains Moises Mizrachi, a businessman who heads the Panamanian committee of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League ... Explaining his fears, Mizrachi told the Washington Jewish Week: 'It is certainly true that the Jewish community did prosper under the dictatorships (from 1969 to the present). The Christian businesses were largely displaced by Jewish businesses.'"

Royal Scammer Linked in Banker Fraud Case. Middle East Times, December 26, 1999
"A complex financial malpractice scandal unfolding in France and involving Moroccan and Jewish businessman is starting to involve actors uncomfortably close to the royal family of Morocco. The Moroccan palace said on December 18 that the royal family had no link with Fouad Filali, the former husband of a princess, who has been questioned as a witness to the suspected money laundering case in France."

Embargo Busting: Serb Economy Stays Afloat with the Help of Criminal Network. Wall St. Journal, [posted here at bosnet.com], June 7, 1994
"Yugoslavia's descent into widespread criminality began two years ago with a pair of textbook pyramid schemes. Jezdimir Vasiljevic, a man with Elvis sideburns who had earlier brought chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer out of seclusion, and Dafina Milanovic [Jewish?], a woman with a taste for wide-brimmed, floppy hats and gaudy gold jewelry, opened banks in Serbia promising to pay up to 15 percent monthly interest for foreign-currency deposits. Both were frequently seen hobnobbing with top Serbian politicians, and their banks' initial interest payments received sensational coverage in the government-controlled media. The money flowed in ... Apparently, it also flowed right back out. Though some was used to pay interest to depositors, most of it went to fuel the Serbian war effort and to finance companies outside Yugoslavia that helped flout sanctions. After a year of operation, both banks collapsed, having defrauded Serbs of at least $2 billion in foreign currency. Mr Vasiljevic, popularly known as 'Jezda the Boss,' fled to Israel and later gave an interview to independent Belgrade Studio B television in which he admitted to smuggling arms for the Yugoslav army."

Ukrainian Parliament Grants Immunity to Fugitive Former Premiere. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 13, 1997 [scroll down page]
"Legislators voted 253 to 19 to grant former acting Prime Minister Yufim Zvyahilsky immunity from arrest if he returns to Ukraine within two months, Reuters and Russian Public TV reported on 12 February. Zvyahilsky took refuge in Israel in 1994 after being accused of embezzling $25 million in public funds. Israel turned down Ukraine's request for his extradition two years ago. Zvyahilsky has repeatedly claimed that his political enemies made the embezzlement charges."

Jewish Bank Figure Detained in Moscow.
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), May 9, 1997 [scroll down JTA page]
"The head of a large Russian bank who is also a prominent member of the country's Jewish community has been detained in Moscow on suspicion of embezzling more than $120 million. Arkady Angelevich, who heads Moscow's Montazhspetsbank and is a member of the presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, has been held in prison for two weeks. Under Russian law, Angelevich can be held for 30 days without being formally charged. During a search of Angelevich's apartment, officials with the Interior Ministry allegedly found incriminating documents, $55,000 in cash and $1 million worth of jewels. Angelevich was arrested on the way to the airport, where he was planning to leave for Israel, according to news reports."

The Sour Notes of Scandal. Warsaw Voice, May 5, 1996
"Prosecutor Krzysztof Wnuk has a bit of work to do. Head of the investigation into Poland's biggest financial scandal in half a century, Wnuk must sift through 200 volumes (70,000 pages) of documents. 'This is the hardest case I've ever been involved with," he says. "It's more than a single man can handle.' Three colleagues are also on the case, but the workload is still considerable. The case involves Andrzej Gasiorowski and Boguslaw Bagsik, owners of the Art-B company. Gasiorowski is still free, living in Israel, and Bagsik is in a Warsaw prison, accused of bilking the government out of trillions of (old) zlotys and then moving to Israel once the investigation against him was opened."

French Trial Reportedly Ordered for Soros. Associated Press [posted at freerepublic.com], December 23, 2000
"An investigating magistrate has ordered the American financier George Soros and three others to stand trial next year on charges that they took part in a 1988 insider-trading scheme involving shares of a French bank, Société Générale, which had been privatized the previous year, people close to the judiciary said today. Charges against seven other people were said to have been dropped. It was not immediately clear what specific charges the four defendants would face. French magistrates have been investigating the case for 12 years."

The Chutzpah vs Den of Thieves. Columbia Journalism Review, February 1992
"One of the first lessons young reporters learn from a city desk is that in a run-of-the-mill crime story the race or ethnic group of the people involved is not 'relevant,' not to be included. Yet to censor ethnic elements in an ambitious piece, one that tries to include a sense of context and personal background, can be to succumb to a kind of racial prudishness. ... Michael M. Thomas ... writes a money-world column in The New York Observer. Thomas also writes novels, and his latest, Hanover Place, was criticized for what a couple of reviewers saw as a special problem -- that it depicted anti-Semitism in the financial world with a bit too much enthusiasm. ... 'If I point out that nine out of 10 people involved in street crimes are black, that's an interesting sociological observation," Thomas says. 'If I point out that nine out of 10 people involved in securities indictments are Jewish, that is an anti-Semitic slur. I cannot sort out the difference' ... James B. Stewart [in his book, Den of Thieves, about the Michael Milken Wall Street scandals] charts the way through a virtual solar system of peculation, past planets large and small, from a metaphorical Mercury representing the penny-ante takings of Dennis B. Levine's small fry, past the middling ($10 million in inside-trading profits) Mars of Mr. Levine himself, along the multiple rings of Saturn -- Ivan F. Boesky, his confederate Martin A. Siegel of Kidder, Peabody, and Mr. Siegel's confederate Robert Freeman of Goldman, Sachs -- and finally back to great Jupiter: Michael R. Milken, the greedy billion-dollar junk-bond kingdom in which some of the nation's greatest names in industry and finance would find themselves entrapped and corrupted."

Harry Helmsley, Real Estate Mogul Husband of Leona, Dead at 87.
The News-Times, January 6, 1997 [Harry Helmsley wasn't Jewish]
"Unlike modern-day real estate speculators, Helmsley kept what he bought, becoming one of the biggest landlords in the country. But his final years were stained by Mrs. [Leona] Helmsley's conviction on federal charges of tax evasion. She spent 18 months in federal prison ... By the end of his life though, Helmsley was best known not as a powerful businessman, but as the senile husband of a woman who came to symbolize the greed of the 1980s. Helmsley hired the former Leona M. Rosenthal as a real estate executive in 1971 and married her a year later after divorcing his wife of 33 years. In 1980, Mrs. Helmsley took control of Helmsley's hotels - six luxury hotels in New York and the Cleveland-based Harley chain. An ad campaign dubbed Mrs. Helmsley the hotel queen, but her reputation as a tough, often dictatorial businesswoman earned her the moniker 'The Queen of Mean.'''
.
Insurance Agent Faces Fraud Charges.
Miami Herald [at www.aegis.com], May 7, 1998
"Phillip Scott Plotka has the resume of a prominent insurance agent. In 1996 he received the Quality of Life Winner award by the Million Dollar Roundtable Foundation. He serves on the board of Jewish Vocational Services and on a professional advisory committee for the insurance industry. He works out of a Brickell Avenue office. But Wednesday, Plotka gained a different sort of notoriety: He became the first agent arrested in Miami-Dade County on charges of insurance fraud solicited through the Internet. The Florida Department of Insurance said he solicited clients with the AIDS virus and instructed them to falsify insurance applications so they would be accepted. State authorities arrested Plotka minutes before he was to tee off at a charity golf tournament at Don Shula's Golf Club in Miami Lakes. 'This is a particularly onerous case because this individual is a highly regarded individual in his field,' [Dade Assistant State Attorney Mark] Shapiro said. 'He sits on an ethics committee.'"

Annals of Espionage. The Traitor (The Case Against Jonathan Pollard), by Seymour Hersh. The New Yorker, January 18, 1999, [posted at freerepublic.com]
"The President's willingness to consider clemency for [American Jewish spy for Israel Jonathan] Pollard so upset the intelligence community that its leaders took an unusual step: they began to go public. In early December, four retired admirals who had served as director of Naval Intelligence circulated an article, eventually published in the Washington Post, in which they argued that Pollard's release would be 'irresponsible' and a victory for what they depicted as a 'clever public relations campaign.' Since then, sensitive details about the secrets Pollard gave away have been made public by CBS and NBC. In the course of my own interviews for this account, the officials who knew the most about Jonathan Pollard made it clear that they were talking because they no longer had confidence that President Clinton would do what they believed was the right thing -- keep Pollard locked up. Pollard, these officials told me, had done far more damage to American national security than was ever made known to the public; for example, he betrayed elements of four major American intelligence systems ... Pollard was paid well by the Israelis: he received a salary that eventually reached twenty-five hundred dollars a month, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash disbursements for hotels, meals, and even jewelry ... Once in jail, Pollard became increasingly fervent in proclaiming his support for Israel. In the Washington Post last summer, the journalist Peter Perl wrote that even Pollard's friends saw him as "obsessed with vindication, consumed by the idea that he is a victim of anti-semitism and that Israel can rescue him through diplomatic and political pressure." Pollard has also turned increasingly to Orthodox Judaism ... Pollard gave the Israelis vast amounts of data dealing with specific American intelligence systems and how they worked."

Fit to Be Tried. But Where? Jerusalem Post, October 19, 1997
"Samuel [Sheinbein, is] the 17-year-old Maryland youth suspected of a brutal slaying and now trying to turn Israel into his land of refuge. According to the 1978 [Israeli] law, passed by Menachem Begin's government, Israeli citizens cannot be extradited for crimes they allegedly committed abroad. Instead, the bill authorized Israeli courts to try such persons here. The impetus for the bill was the case of Reuven Pesahovitz, an Israeli accused by the Swiss of embezzlement and fraud of more than 10m. Swiss francs. Prime minister Begin, then serving also as justice minister, refused to extradite Pesahovitz. Meretz MK Amnon Rubinstein, formerly the dean of Tel Aviv University's Law Faculty, said that Begin's pushing of this legislation was part of his philosophy of not wanting to turn Jews over to non-Jews, because of a concern that they would not get a fair trial. At the time that the law was enacted, another high-profile extradition case, involving Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, was stirring passions in the country. Flatto-Sharon was accused of embezzlement and fraud by France which was seeking his extradition."

Israel Refuses to Extradite Alleged War Criminal. Ukrainian News [posted by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association], December 2-15, 1998
"Israel, on Dec. 7, refused to extradite an accused war criminal to face trial in Poland, stating that the statute of limitations had run out on the case and Canada's Ukrainian community has reacted with fury. A Dec. 7 Associated Press story carried by several Canadian newspapers, among them The Toronto Star and The Calgary Herald reported that Israel's Justice Ministry had refused to extradite Solomon Morel, who commanded a camp for German prisoners in southern Poland, allegedly tortured inmates and was considered responsible for at least 1,538 deaths. Poland requested Morel's extradition in April on charges of beating and torturing prisoners and creating inhuman conditions at the Swietochlowice camp, which he commanded from February to November 1945, stated AP ... 'The Canadian government can denaturalize and deport people without even proving that these individuals committed any crime. But Israel has a statute of limitations for war crimes. Shame on Canada and shame on Israel,' wrote Mary Radewych of Etobicoke, whose father Vasyl Odynsky faces deportation even though the government has not brought any charges of war crimes against him, in a letter to The Toronto Star."

The Purple Gang, [History], crimelibrary.com.
"In the 1920s, Detroit belonged to the Purple Gang, a group of killers and thugs as vicious and bloodthirsty as any racketeer in New York or Chicago. The Purples ran the rackets in Detroit for much of the 1920s and early 30s until the Syndicate boys from back east moved in and wrested control from a gang that had seen its numbers decimated by infighting and prosecution ... In the beginning, the "gangsters" were nothing more than the sons of Russian Jewish immigrants who had come to the New Country in search of a better life ... The boys, led by the four Bernstein brothers – Abe, Joe, Raymond and Izzy, were shakedown artists and jewel thieves, but thanks to Prohibition and the convenient location of Detroit, the young delinquents quickly graduated from nuisance types of street crime to armed robbery, hijacking, extortion, and other strong arm work. They became notorious for their high profile manner of operation and their savagery in dealing with enemies."

Meyer Lansky: Mastermind of the Mob, [History], crimelibrary.com
"If there ever was a golden age of organized crime, it could be argued that it began with Lansky's descent into the underworld when he placed his first bet on a street corner craps game before the start of World War I and ended when he died in the winter of 1983. Arnold Rothstein, the supposed fixer the 1919 World Series, was the Cronus of American organized crime -- the proto-godfather, if you will. Charlie Luciano stirred up the action, Benny Siegel provided the chutzpa, Lepke Buchalter terrorized the enemy but Lansky rose above the fray and served as the brains of the outfit. Luciano was exiled and died relatively young, Siegel and Rothstein were assassinated and Lepke died in Sing Sing's electric chair, but Meyer Lansky died a wealthy old man in Miami, Florida, where he was known as a supporter of Israel and a frequent contributor to the local public television station."

The Development of Organized Crime and the World of Meyer Lansky/Lansky's Inner Circle. [History] Eastern Kentucky University/Department of Criminal Justice and Police Studies
A detailed examination of the world of Syndicate godfather Meyer Lansky, including the Jewish mob's influence in the creation of Las Vegas. With few exceptions, the many characters noted here in Lansky's criminal underworld are Jewish.