Jewish Gangsters, [History], Jewish Virtual Library
"There are few excuses for the behavior of Jewish gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s. The best known Jewish gangsters – Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Longy Zwillman, Moe Dalitz — were involved in the numbers rackets, illegal drug dealing, prostitution, gambling and loan sharking. They were not nice men. During the rise of American Nazism in the 1930s and when Israel was being founded between 1945 and 1948, however, they proved staunch defenders of the Jewish people ... Jewish gangsters also helped establish Israel after the war. One famous example is a meeting between Bugsy Siegel and Reuven Dafne, a Haganah emissary, in 1945. Dafne was seeking funds and guns to help liberate Palestine from British rule. A mutual friend arranged for the two men to meet. 'You mean to tell me Jews are fighting?' Siegel asked. 'You mean fighting as in killing?' Dafne answered in the affirmative. Siegel replied, 'I’m with you.' For weeks, Dafne received suitcases filled with $5 and $10 bills -- $50,000 in all -- from Siegel."

J. P. Morgan of the Underworld. [History] American Jewish Historical Society.
"Historians speculate that Jews comprised half of the nation’s leading bootleggers and that Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel dominated organized crime certain cities. Of course, with the largest Jewish population, New York produced the largest number of Jewish gangsters. The kingpin of the New York Jewish underworld was not a street tough gangster, but a refined gambler: Arnold Rothstein. According to Rockaway, 'Rothstein is recognized as the pioneer big businessman of organized crime in the United States' ... Rothstein was born with a business pedigree. His father, wealthy businessman Abraham Rothstein, was dubbed by New York governor Al Smith 'Abe the Just.' A pious man with a reputation for philanthropy and honesty, Abraham Rothstein served as chairman of the board of New York’s Beth Israel Hospital. His older son became a rabbi ... Historian [Robert] Rockaway reports, 'Out of respect for the older Rothstein, Arnold received an Orthodox Jewish funeral with the renowned Orthodox rabbi, Leo Jung, delivering the eulogy.'"

Mobtown Confidential. Baltimore Magazine, 2000
"Julius 'The Lord' Salsbury ... was a [Baltimore] Block kingpin who was hunted down by the Feds ... Salsbury ... was never caught. After appealing in a gambling conviction, he jumped bail and fled the country in 1970, eluding capture ever since. Legend has it that he went to Israel to enjoy the protections afforded Jewish-American criminals under the 1965 U.S.-Israeli extradition treaty ... Julius Salsbury became Mobtown's outlaw hero ... By the early 1950s, the lowdown on the Block was attracting out-of-town press. In Washington Confidential, the bestselling pulp expose from 1951, Baltimore's red-light strip was described as 'one of the most vicious and lawless areas in the world' by muckraking authors Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer. 'At this writing,' they concluded, 'any and all forms of vice are tolerated and protected. There is a price for everything and it's not much.'"

More Misleading Than Buying Sight Unseen.
The Art Newspaper [Great Britain], May 30, 2000
"The New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has filed an injunction against the Antique and Design Center, an art gallery based in New Windsor outside New York City, for selling fake works of art through eBay. Throughout 1999, the Antique and Design Center, which also operates under the name Antique Connection and sells on eBay through the ID 'sambuca914.' sold twenty-three works valued between $700 and $10,000 ... (The proprietors of the Antique and Design Center, Jill and Jerry Schuster, had no comment for the publication.) This will be the first case of fraud brought by the State against an online art retailer, but the Attorney General does not think that it will be the last. 'This is just the tip of the iceberg,' commented Mr Spitzer. He also added that several other galleries are currently under investigation."

Money Laundering Charges for Art Dealers, museum-security.org [originally from the New York Times], June 3 2001
"Two New York City art dealers, Shirley D. Sack, 73 and Arnold K. Katzen, 62, have been charged with conspiring to launder $4.1 million in drug money after being apprehended in an undercover sting in Boston, federal authorities said. According to the Associated Press, the two were arrested on Thursday at the Ritz Carlton Hotel as they attempted to sell paintings, which they claimed were originals by Modigliani and Degas, to a federal agent posing as a drug dealer. Alan M. Stewart, a Stamford, Conn., art dealer who was not present during the undercover sting, was charged with conspiring to set up the transaction. Court papers identified Ms. Sack as a wholesaler of art and jewelry, and principal of Shirley D. Sack, Ltd., 300 East 56th Street, and Mr. Katzen as principal of American European Art Associates, 1100 Madison Avenue. Federal authorities said their investigation began in March when an informant, who would later act as a go-between in Thursday's operation, told them that Ms. Sack had been attempting to sell a painting by Raphael and was prepared to accept payment in drug money or from organized crime figures."

Four Israelis Arrested Here for Stealing Judaica in Europe. museum-security.org. [originally from the Jerusalem Post], February 28, 2001
"A gang of Israelis is suspected of stealing valuable Judaica, ritual objects, and holy books from synagogues, museums, and private collections all over Europe, smuggling them into Israel, and reselling them. Tel Aviv police arrested four suspects on Monday and yesterday, central unit head Asst.- Cmdr. Menahem Frank said. Additional arrests are expected, he said, adding that at this point all the members of the gang appear to be Israelis. Police found $2 million worth of valuables that are believed to have been stolen in the Jerusalem home of one suspect."

The Great $50 Million Art Swindle. Forbes, February 6, 2001
"Many are calling it the biggest art fraud ever. When all the figures are in, art dealer Michel Cohen will have taken the art world for at least $50 million, and maybe half as much again or more ... It's a jealous and wary system, where each player guards sources and clients, but it is built on an essential trust. This is the system that has made the art market the largest unregulated money market in the world--a market that Michel Cohen was in a position to loot."

FBI to Examine Photo 'Forgeries.' The Times [of London], August 17, 2001
"The FBI has begun an investigation into the suspected forgery of hundreds of works by one of America’s most famous photographers. Test showed that numerous 'vintage' prints by Lewis Hine, who is revered for his social realist pictures from the Depression, were printed on paper not available until more than a decade after his death in 1940. The investigation was prompted by a complaint from a dealer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about Hine’s longtime collaborator, Walter Rosenblum, an acclaimed war photographer and the former president of the Photo League co-operative where Hine left his archives ... he was reported to have reached a confidential settlement out of court with six dealers to create a £690,000 fund to reimburse buyers of between 300 and 500 Hine prints who were unhappy with their purchases."

Hollywood's Trade Paper. New Times, December 10, 1998
"Lew Wasserman--co-founder, with the late Jules Stein [both Jewish], of MCA (now known as Universal Studios)--will forever be extolled in the pages of his lifelong mouthpiece, the [Los Angeles] Times, as the brilliant businessman who practically created Hollywood, who erected the financial bridge that tightly binds Hollywood to the Democratic Party, and who graciously gave to charity once his work was done. But in an earth-scorching new epic on Hollywood, The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood, longtime rumors and dark whisperings finally come to the fore in a devastating portrayal of Wasserman and Stein as two men so in bed with the Mob and so willing to ruin others in their quest for gold that they must be regarded with fascinated contempt ... As for [Lew's wife] Edie Wasserman, long portrayed in the L.A. media as a big-hearted philanthropist and hostess extraordinaire, [investigative journalist Dennis] McDougal claims instead that she was a manipulator who introduced Lew to mobsters via her dad, Henry Beckerman, connected to the [Jewish] Moe Dalitz Mayfield Road gang of Cleveland ... McDougal cites numerous examples of Stein and Wasserman's dealings with the Mob, including an incident in the 1960s when Meyer Lansky, the feared [Jewish] New York mobster, waltzed into Jules Stein's Hollywood office to drink liqueur and meet with well-known [Jewish] mob lawyer Sidney Korshak, the labor fixer who also just happened to be Lew Wasserman's best friend and legal confidante."

CIA's Sidney Gottlieb: Pusher, Assassin, & Pimp: U.S. Official Poisoner Dies. Counterpunch, [Undated]
"Sidney Gottlieb, who for more than two decades managed the CIA's Technical Services Division, died on March 10. His obituaries in the New York Times and the Washington Post tended to focus own Gottlieb's testing of LSD on himself and other CIA officers, portraying him as a kind of Merry Prankster, the CIA's very own Ken Kesey. In fact, with Gottlieb's death, America has lost its prime poisoner. For many years, most notably in the 1950s and 1960s, Gottlieb presided over the CIA's technical services division and supervised preparation of lethal poisons, experiments in mind control and administration of LSD and other psycho-active drugs to unwitting subjects ... Gottlieb was a man of darkness ... From the beginning, Gottlieb saw himself as part of the operational wing of the CIA. Even the forays into LSD research, Gottlieb saw a testing for a potential chemical warfare weapon. He arranged a contract with Eli Lily to produce synthetic LSD 'in tonnage quantities.' The aim was to have enough acid to incapacitate large populations and armies. By the early 1960s Gottlieb's techniques and potions were being fully deployed in the field. Well-known is Gottlieb's journey to the Congo, where his little black bag held an Agency-developed biotoxin scheduled for Patrice Lumumba's toothbrush. He also tried to manage Iraq's general Kassim with a handkerchief doctored with botulinum and there were the endless poisons directed at Fidel Castro, from the LSD the Agency wanted to spray in his radio booth to the poisonous fountain pen intended for Castro that was handed by a CIA man to Rolando Cubela on November 22, 1963."

Plot Thickens Around Ex-CIA Director John Deutch. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. April 2000
"Asked at a public lecture at the Smithsonian Institution to rate former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Millis, executive director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a former CIA operations officer, unhesitatingly proclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor John Deutch, who headed the agency from May 1995 to December 1996, the worst ever ... Deutch, whose security clearance has been revoked by the CIA, is under investigation for security lapses. So far all that has emerged is that he allegedly prepared his regular top-secret briefings for the president and selected cabinet members at home on an unclassified computer, on which he also stored highly classified reference material, all of which he then left unprotected while other members of the family used the same computer to send e-mails and even visit naughty Web sites, thus opening the secrets contained in Deutch’s CIA-owned computer to possible outside penetration and compromise ... CIA Inspector General Britt Snider’s 86-page report on the security lapse describes receiving a deluge of e-mails from CIA employees who were outraged that the security review was being directed or, according to the e-mails, delayed by CIA Deputy Director Nora Slatkin [also Jewish]. She was brought by Deutch with him from the Pentagon after he took over the CIA, and, it was revealed, had accepted a job offered by Deutch with his next employer, Citibank, even as she continued to monitor the security investigation of her past and future employer. In fact, Snider’s report charged that Slatkin 'had the effect of delaying a prompt and thorough investigation of this matter' ... Some newspapers attributed the on-going investigation to a 'wave of anti-Semitism' at the CIA because Deutch has been described in Jewish community weeklies as 'the first practicing Jew to head the CIA' and with having close ties to Israel, including Israeli relatives and part ownership of a house in West Jerusalem.”

Deutch Balked at Nondisclosure. Insight on the News. April 23, 2001
"[John] Deutch, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims he never intended to violate secrecy agreements when he stored 17,000 CIA files on his unsecured home computer. His attorneys insist he was not aware he had unauthorized documents in his possession despite repeated debriefings warning him that he must 'return all materials' or face criminal charges. Prior to leaving office, President Clinton killed the criminal probe by issuing a pardon to his longtime friend, effectively putting an end to allegations Deutch maintained 'black-program' intelligence files, consisting of electronic-warfare plans, on his home computer."

How Are the Mighty Fallen! U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk 's Lost (and Found) Security Clearance. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2000
"Martin Indyk, America’s ambassador to Israel, is a Zionist. Israeli newspapers reported that Indyk declared himself such when he went to Israel in 1995 as the first American Jewish ambassador to the Jewish state. Indyk’s security clearance was lifted by the State Department in September for 'suspected violations' of security standards. Despite its restoration in October, a thousand questions arise ... But it was in America’s capital that Indyk—former deputy director of research at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israel’s Washington, DC lobby, and the first executive director of the AIPAC-spin-off Washington Institute for Near East Policy—leapt to a sudden stardom. In 1993 newly elected President Bill Clinton appointed Indyk chief Middle East adviser on the National Security Council. After having lived in New York and Washington for a decade, Indyk benefitted from a speeded-up process, to acquire U.S. citizenship only 10 days before assuming his new duties ... Given [his] verbal compulsion, it would seem only natural for Indyk to treat the Israeli officers with whom he has dealt over the past five years in both Washington and Tel Aviv as constituting no danger to U.S. interests—and thus to let them see classified U.S. intelligence as a matter of course. That, in fact, is the very basis for Indyk’s recent troubles, according to an article by Israeli military expert Ze’ev Schiff in the Hebrew-language newspaper Ha’aretz."

Israel Fears More Rights Challenges in Europe, Haaretz [Israeli newspaper], July 26, 2001
"The [Israeli] Foreign Ministry has begun 'mapping' the criminal justice systems of European countries, trying to identify 'problematic states' where prominent officials in the Israeli security services might face legal action because of wide-ranging local authority to prosecute suspected human rights violations. Sources in the Foreign Ministry warned that prominent IDF and Shin Bet security service officers, who have appeared in the press in connection with their past or present jobs, might be subject to prosecution in some European countries. The issue first arose with a complaint to the Belgian court system against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for alleged responsibility for massacres in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. This was closely followed by complaints from Danish parliamentary and human rights groups against Carmi Gillon, the former Shin Bet chief recently appointed ambassador to Denmark. Several high-ranking security officers, both past and present, have recently asked the ministry whether they might face difficulties traveling through Europe."

Israel Extradition Law Offers Help to Alleged Criminals. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, February 27, 1998
"Are Israelis committing crimes in the United States and fleeing home to avoid prosecution? In some cases, yes. But recent developments suggest that while these alleged criminals can run, they can't necessarily hide. The issue emerged in September, when a Maryland teenager claimed Israeli citizenship in an effort to avoid a murder trial in the United States. The case of Samuel Sheinbein came before the Israeli courts this week as Israeli officials, seeking to comply with a U.S. request for extradition, argued that despite the youth's claim, he is not an Israeli citizen. While Sheinbein's case is extreme, his flight from U.S. prosecutors has focused some unwanted attention on Israel's extradition policy. Like most European countries and many South American nations, Israel does not extradite its citizens. But it does allow prosecutions in its own courts for crimes committed abroad. But the fear of prosecution at home has not stopped at least a half-dozen Israelis from fleeing the United States in recent months. The recent trend has elicited much concern among U.S. law-enforcement personnel and prosecutors, who fear that Israeli criminals will use the Jewish state as a refuge ... Until 1977, there was an extradition treaty between the United States and Israel. But an Israeli law, passed in 1977 and intended to protect Israelis from legal actions abroad motivated by anti-Semitism, superseded that treaty, according to an Israeli official in Washington. Since then, the Israeli law barring extradition of its citizens has come under fire in the United States. The Sheinbein case reopened the issue, resulting in congressional pressure not only to extradite Sheinbein, but also to change the law to prevent similar situations in the future."

Former Jewish Agency Chief Fined $13,000 on Fraud Charges. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, May 17, 1996
"Former Jewish Agency for Israel chairman Simcha Dinitz has been fined approximately $13,000 after being found guilty of billing the agency for charges on a personal credit card. In announcing the fine, a Jerusalem district court judge stressed the seriousness of the offenses, which were fraud and breach of trust. At the same time, he rejected the prosecution's request for a prison term."

$5G Fine in Mall Bomb Threat. The Journal News [White Plains, NY], May 23, 2001
"Alkobi, an Israelli national and electrician, called in a bomb threat on November 4 from the fourth floor of the West Nycack shopping center."

What Turns a War Hero into a Bank Robber? Chicago Daily Herald. May 16, 2001
"Just as [Harry Rabin] left Germany a decorated World War II hero, he left the bank that day a bank robber. And he has to believe it, because he stuck up two more banks that same Fall ... He's going to Federal prison at age 77."

The Resurrection of Michael Milken. The American Prospect, March 13, 2000
"When Milken was sentenced to prison on November 21, 1990, he was one of the most reviled men in America. But today, nearly a decade later, the 53-year-old Milken is everywhere. A survivor of cancer, he is the founder and chairman of CaP CURE (the Association for the Cure of Cancer of the Prostate) and the author of a best-selling cookbook featuring recipes for fighting cancer; he has also expanded the Milken Family Foundation, a philanthropic venture best known for its education awards, and is a lead investor in Knowledge Universe, a family of companies specializing in early childhood education, Internet commerce, technology consulting, and educational testing ... Ultimately, Milken was the target of a 98-count criminal indictment and a massive civil case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The charges against him included insider trading, price manipulation, falsifying records, filing false reports, racketeering, and defrauding customers; the heart of the indictment accused Milken of 'stock parking,' or arranging to swap securities with his accomplice Ivan Boesky [also Jewish] to hide their true ownership. In essence, Milken used Boesky as a front to trade stocks in companies in which Drexel had a confidential interest--earning millions for both men."

Gore Family Tradition Includes Aid From Communist Oil Tycoon.
Insight on the News, November 20, 2000.
"It is hard to conceive that a figure of such international stature as [Jewish mogul] Armand Hammer, who died in 1990 at age 92, could have been as contemptible a swindler as he apparently was, but such is the inescapable conclusion of Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer by Edward Jay Epstein. A secret agent for the Soviet Union since 1921, Hammer managed to make and lose several fortunes during his long life, along the way skirting investigations of money-laundering, fraud, conspiracy, espionage, bribery and countless other crimes by the FBI, Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and other government agencies. The tale of his serial betrayals (of his family, his religion, his country), endless self-aggrandizement and success at courting the rich and famous makes fascinating reading, but there is a contemporary hook: Hammer loomed very large in the lives of one of America’s prominent political families, the Albert Gores ... [Hammer] was utterly unscrupulous and very adept at stroking the powerful. When, through the liquor concession, a wife’s fortune and other machinations, he was able to achieve great wealth, he immediately used it to purchase political influence. In 1950, he made Rep. Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee a partner in his cattle-breeding business, which brought Gore a substantial profit. When J. Edgar Hoover considered moving against Hammer for his provable treason, he stayed his hand at least in part because Hammer had friends in high places, including Gore." [Also, here's an interview about Hammer at Booknotes with Edward Epstein, author of Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer].

How Mr. Clean Got His Hands Dirty. Sunday Telegraph [London], [posted at freerepublic.com], March 6, 2000
"[Armand] Hammer, who died in 1990 aged 92, was one of the century's most sinister figures. Kremlin papers released after the collapse of the USSR and exhaustively researched by Ed Epstein in his book Dossier prove that, from the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hammer was a lifelong 'agent of influence' of the Soviet Politburo and an accomplice of every Russian leader from Lenin to Gorbachev. In the 1930s, to take one example, he was actively trading with Stalin, routing valuable goods through Germany to disguise their origin (a fact he denied to the end of his days). And in 1931, Hammer set up a banking operation in Paris specifically to provide foreign exchange funds, which were otherwise beyond reach, for Stalin's regime. At the same time as he was serving the Russians, Hammer was also the Godfather of American corporate corruption. As Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Inc. of Los Angeles - an industrial colossus with annual sales of $22 billion at the time of Hammer's death - Hammer bribed and suborned elected representatives at all levels of American life, from city assemblymen and mayors to presidents. Hammer was one of the moneybags behind Richard Nixon's Watergate. He was also the boss of the company that owned the Piper Alpha North Sea platform, which erupted in 1988 with the deaths of 167 men and whose management and safety practices were excoriated in Lord Cullen's report for the British Government. If the crime of corporate homicide had existed then, Hammer might well have been charged. For chicanery, fraud, bribery, corruption, theft and self-promotion, Armand Hammer made Robert Maxwell [also Jewish] look like a beginner. Hammer owned Al Gore Snr. Hammer kept Gore, as he liked to say, 'in my back-pocket.' When he said this, Hammer would touch his wallet and chuckle. Throughout the whole of his life, Al Gore Snr. and his family depended on pay-outs, kickbacks and subventions from Hammer. Like his father's before him, Al Gore Jnr's political career was lavishly sponsored by Hammer from the moment it began until Hammer died, only two years before Gore joined Clinton in the 1992 race for the White House."

Maxwell, Robert. The Columbia Encylopedia, 2001
"[Robert Maxwell] grew up in a tight-knit Jewish community ... . A 1969 financial scandal cost Maxwell control over Pergamon [Press] and his political career, but he went heavily into debt and repurchased Pergamon in 1974. In the 1980s, he borrowed additional funds to create a diversified media empire that came to include the [London] Mirror Newspaper Group, the U.S. book publishing company Macmillan, the Official Airline Guides, Berlitz, and the New York Daily News. After Maxwell drowned mysteriously while cruising off the Canary Islands, investigators discovered that he had misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars from his companies and their pension plans to finance his corporate expansion. Maxwell’s companies were forced to file for bankruptcy protection in Great Britain and the United States in 1992. In 1995 Maxwell’s sons Kevin and Ian and two former directors went on trial in one of Britain’s largest fraud cases. The charges included misusing Maxwell group pension fund stocks to assist a faltering Maxwell company and risking pension fund shares to secure a loan for another Maxwell company. They were acquitted in 1996."

An Ugly Real-Life Drama for Producer Garth Drabinsky. Business Week, Septembe 29, 1998
"Garth Drabinsky's torturous fall from grace at Broadway production company Livent Inc. over the past four months has been one of the theater world's most spectacular declines. The wunderkind who brought the current hit Ragtime to the elegantly refashioned Ford Center in New York City had long been known as a lavish spender. But his indefinite suspension in August as Livent's creative director and vice-chairman -- amid allegations of 'serious' accounting irregularities -- stunned theater insiders. Lately, it has spawned frenetic legal action ... Embarrassingly, the news of Drabinsky's suspension, along with that of Vice-President and longtime Drabinsky associate Myron Gottlieb, was made public promptly that morning. A Livent press release damningly reported that 'an internal investigation has revealed serious irregularities' in company records that had been uncovered late the prior week. The release, which made news across North America, said 'millions of dollars' were involved and added that it was 'virtually certain' that results for 1996, 1997, and early 1998 would have to be restated."

Blind Trust. The True Story of Enid Greene and Joe Waldholtz.
Utah Books, [Book review]
"Blind Trust is a riveting true story that details the day-to-day events that led to an intelligent attorney and U.S. Congresswoman from Utah trusting a man in high political circles, a man she would marry and whose secret con-man deceptions almost put her in jail. How they met, married, had a child, and moved to Washington, where the truth finally emerged: that virtually everything about Joe, who represented himself as a multi-millionaire, was a lie. He was in fact penniless, meaning the $4 million he 'borrowed' from Enid's wealthy father—$1.7 million of which was used to finance Enid's congressional campaign—was not only down the drain, but caused the election to be tainted as well ... She was a politician rising out of the West. He was a kingmaker rising out of the East. Together they posed a most formidable team. They were well-connected, well-prepared, and very well-off...or so it seemed. Blind Trust is the story of Enid Greene and Joe Waldholtz [who is Jewish] -- or, as they came to be known after their faces became a staple on the nightly news, Enid & Joe. It chronicles a tale of betrayal that, as it unfolded publicly, caused jaws to drop across the nation."

Mondo Washington. Village Voice, August 15-21, 2001
"You might have to be crazy. Or at least foolhardy. But you could try to bring Henry Kissinger to justice for crimes against humanity. Consider, though, what happened to the last people to talk even jokingly about plans for a citizen's arrest of the real-life model for Dr. Strangelove ... An indictment of Henry Kissinger for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes would include (but not be confined to) the following: VIETNAM: Kissinger scuttled peace talks in 1968, paving the way for Richard Nixon's victory in the presidential race. Half the battle deaths in Vietnam took place between 1968 and 1972, not to mention the millions of civilians throughout Indochina who were killed. CAMBODIA: Kissinger persuaded Nixon to widen the war with massive bombing of Cambodia and Laos. No one had suggested we go to war with either of these countries. By conservative estimates, the U.S. killed 600,000 civilians in Cambodia and another 350,000 in Laos. BANGLADESH: Using weapons supplied by the U.S., General Yahya Khan overthrew the democratically elected government and murdered at least half a million civilians in 1971. In the White House, the National Security Council wanted to condemn these actions. Kissinger refused. Amid the killing, Kissinger thanked Khan for his "delicacy and tact." CHILE: Kissinger helped to plan the 1973 U.S.-backed overthrow of the democratically elected Salvador Allende and the assassination of General René Schneider. Right-wing general Augusto Pinochet then took over. Moderates fled for their lives. Hit men, financed by the CIA, tracked down Allende supporters and killed them. These attacks included the car bombing of Allende's foreign minister, Orlando Letelier, and an aide, Ronni Moffitt, at Sheridan Circle in downtown Washington. EAST TIMOR: In 1975 President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger met with Indonesia's corrupt strongman Suharto. Kissinger told reporters the U.S. wouldn't recognize the tiny country of East Timor, which had recently won independence from the Portuguese. Within hours Suharto launched an invasion, killing, by some estimates, 200,000 civilians."

Millionaire Charged with Lying to IRS. Electronic Accountant, 1999
"A Long Island millionaire has been arrested on charges he evaded more than $6 million in income taxes and lied to the Internal Revenue Service. The federal indictment alleges that financier Barry Trupin concealed assets, including millions of dollars in real estate, collectibles and cash, to make an offer in compromise to the IRS ... Trupin submitted a false financial statement in which he claimed that his only assets were $500 in cash and a $48,000 line of credit. But the IRS claims that Trupin retained control of an extravagant mansion known as 'Dragon’s Head' in posh Southampton, N.Y., even though he sold the estate in 1992 for about $3.3 million. The indictment also alleges that Trupin owned a 16th Century suit of armor worth $1.5 million, an Alma Tedema piano worth $1 million, and a fleet of Rolls Royces."

NON-CRIMINAL FRAUD CATEGORY:

The Creation of Dr. B.: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim. Salon.com, January 21, 1997
"Assuming [biographer Richard] Pollak has got it right — and there is more documentation here than most of us would need — Bettelheim joins the ranks of notorious dissemblers like the billionaire art collector, Kremlinologist and presidential shoulder-rubber Armand Hammer, who, we recently learned, fabricated a bogus account of his own life. But the most apt comparison is really with Jerzy Kosinski, the lionized author of the "Painted Bird," whose novelized wartime humiliations were treated as biographical fact until little holes in his story began to emerge. An assimilationist Jew who parlayed his suffering into a comfortable, polo-playing literary lifestyle, Kosinski ended up killing himself in a bathtub. Bettelheim, who lied about his own past, lived to a ripe old age before something — guilt? — finally prompted him to kill himself in 1990, not yet revealed as the charlatan he was." [Bettelheim, Hammer, and Kosinski were all Jewish]

Lying. A Life Story. Los Angeles Times [posted at a web site page devoted to Kosinski], May 12, 1996
"[Writer Jerzy] Kosinski [born Jerzy Lewintopf] came to the U.S. in 1957, from his native Poland. Here, as he had there, he gradually became known for a spectrum of sociopathic behavior ranging from mere megalomania to brutal sexual coercion, fraud and plagiarism. Yet he was so convincing that his powerful supporters (including Yale University and the New York Times) believed his side of these accounts for 25 years before evidence was finally published in the Village Voice showing the depth of his cons and dishonesty. According to [biographer Jame Park] Sloan, Kosinski couldn't help being a pathological liar and a control freak."

The 'Casanova of Causes.' The Nation. April 10, 2000
"If we are to believe David Cesarani's weird book, [Simone de] Beauvoir was luckier than many of [Jewish writer Arthur Koestler's] bedmates. What might just as easily have happened is Koestler's inviting himself into her flat, bullying her into batching up an omelet, helping her to towel the plates, grabbing her by her hair or throat, pulling her down to the linoleum, banging her head a couple of times and then raping her, after which explaining: 'I thought you had a bit of a yen for me.' This is what he did to Jill Craigie, the filmmaker wife of Labor MP Michael Foot. (Craigie died late last year, but not before the details of her interview with Cesarani made headlines in the British tabloids.) And probably what he did to a fair number of other young women in his long career of sexual conquest ... More than a user, Koestler was an abuser--of women, alcohol, automobiles and ideas. This abusiveness--and the evidence is overwhelming that he was an "intemperate, obsessive, egomaniacal, bullying, petty, selfish, arrogant, lecherous, duplicitous and self-deluding" "serial rapist" addicted late in life to "happy pills" (Dexedrine)--is one of two main accusations in a relentless bill of indictment. The other is "the negativity of his Jewishness," by which [Jewish biographer David] Cesarani, a professor of modern Jewish history at Southampton University, means more than ambivalence but a denial verging on self-hatred."

Arlington Waiver Questioned. The Record [New Jersey], December 5, 1997
"Republican investigators are questioning the account of the late Ambassador M. Larry Lawrence that he was a merchant mariner wounded during World War II, a record that helped win a waiver for him to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The disclosure yesterday that investigators have turned up no records placing Lawrence on the torpedoed SS Horace Bushnell -- or even in the merchant marine -- rekindled a controversy over whether waivers were handed out by the Clinton administration as political favors to Democratic donors ... Lawrence, who was appointed ambassador to Switzerland in 1993 and died in 1996, contended he was tossed overboard and received a severe head injury during the bombing of a U.S. vessel in 1945. He was never in the military, but the White House and the Pentagon said he deserved burial in Arlington because of his merchant marine service and his work as ambassador. Lawrence was one of the largest contributors to the Democrats among President Clinton’s 1993 appointees ... [Lawrence claimed that he] 'was thrown overboard into frigid Arctic waters and suffered serious head injuries, which required many months of convalescence.' That information apparently came from Lawrence himself ... At the time, 'there was no reason to believe that it wasn’t true.'” [Lawrence was Jewish]

JNF Appoints Investigator in Tree-Planting Scandal. Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2000
"Jewish National Fund officials announced yesterday that retired Tel Aviv District Court Judge Arye Segelson will head the organization's investigation into allegations of misconduct in JNF's 'Plant a Tree With Your Own Hands' program for tourists. The announcement is the latest in a series of JNF efforts to address an article last week in Ma'ariv claiming that saplings planted by tourists at a JNF site near Hadassah-University Hospital, Ein Kerem, had been uprooted to allow other tourists to plant in the same spot the next day."

Life Is Not Rehearsal, by John S. Spong, Bishop of Newark.
Diocese of Newark [this article is "cached" at google.com]
"His name is David Brudnoy. In our part of the United States that name is not readily identified. If you live in Boston or New England, however, David Brudnoy is a household word. He is a regional radio and television personality. His late night radio talk show on Boston's 50,000 watt WBZ is said to reach into thirty-eight states. In his world David Brudnoy is known as 'an intellectual Rush Limbaugh.' He is an ultra conservative right-wing political critic. He refers to the President of the United States as 'Bubba.' He is a close friend of the outspoken and iconoclastic John Silber, the conservative president of Boston University. Brudnoy got his start as a political commentator for William Buckley's National Review. The Conservative Party of Massachusetts sought him as its nominee for the Senate ... David Brudnoy is a unique human being. He is Jewish, but without religious convictions ... What did surprise me was a story I read in The New York Times in January of 1995, which announced that conservative, right-wing talk show host David Brudnoy was a homosexual and was dying with AIDS. Suddenly all of the stereotypes built up over the years in my mind began to collapse. I had never before met a right-wing homosexual ... In David Brudnoy I had been confronting a disciple of the same William Buckley who, on his program, 'Firing Line,' consistently refers to gay people as 'Sodomites.' Now it was publicly revealed that one of Buckley's closest asscociates was himself a gay man. More than that, Brudnoy was clearly an active gay man whose sexual proclivities had resulted in the dread diagnosis of AIDS."

Sam's Club,
Time, June 17, 2002
"What did Martha Stewart know? And when did she know it? These are hardly the most pressing These are hardly the most pressing questions to emerge from the collapse of yet another stock and the disgrace of one more CEO, this time at the once high-flying biotech firm ImClone. But after the scandals and meltdowns at Enron and Tyco and the self-serving stock recommendations at Merrill Lynch, the shamed corporate hero has become positively pedestrian. It takes a celebrity touch to hold our interest, and with ImClone we're getting the full weight of high society. At the center of the latest greedfest is Sam Waksal, an immunologist who turned into a dazzling biotechnology entrepreneur. In 1984 he founded ImClone, a little-known company until it made headlines for an apparent success with a cancer treatment called Erbitux in 1999. Waksal, 54, was always as much salesman as scientist and employed his reputation and charm as a ladder into elite circles that included home-decor guru Stewart, Mick Jagger, actress Mariel Hemingway, financier Carl Icahn and Dr. John Mendelsohn, the cancer-drug pioneer and former Enron board member. Waksal's eclectic posse combined science and celebrity with stock-market speculation. It was an intoxicating lifestyle that the ImClone chief apparently savored. But Waksal's world was rocked last week when authorities arrived at his elegant loft in lower Manhattan at 6 a.m. and, after allowing the pajama-clad Waksal to change into street clothes, hauled him off to court in handcuffs. The central charge was that Waksal had tried to sell $5 million in ImClone shares and tipped two family members to dump their stock too, after he learned — before the news was made public — that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to review Erbitux's application."

1994: Rappaport: Not your everyday slumlord. Many of his real estate holdings have been sold in the years since his death,
Philadelphia Business Journal, August 2, 2002
"The legacy left by infamous Center City real estate speculator Samuel A. Rappaport, the city's most notorious building-code violator, is gradually being transformed. When Rappaport died at 64 in 1994, he left an estate valued at $56.5 million and owned some 50 or so buildings in Center City, many of which were in various stages of disrepair. He built his real estate empire on a simple business strategy: Buy low, sink as few dollars as possible for upgrades or maintenance, and sell high. Rappaport at one point owned more properties in Center City than anyone else did. It also was common for him to rack up building code violations year after year, property after property ... He liberally gave to Jewish charities, including the Federal Allied Jewish Appeal and, at one point, owned State of Israel bonds that were valued at more than $25 million, according to published reports. Politically he gave to former mayor Ed Rendell, and Sen. Arlen Specter, [both Jewish politicians] among others. While his generosity was notable, Rappaport's massive real estate portfolio made him notorious. Rappaport had a knack for seizing upon strategically located properties. For example, he owned land where the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Liberty Place and Market Street East, the Center City Commuter Tunnel and the Marriott Hotel now stand. When he bought a property, he would make minor improvements, such as to a building's lighting and insulation, and then raise the rents. Tenants often complained that he seldom made any upgrades but still insisted on increasing rents. In 1976, Rappaport won a 15-year lease to manage the Reading Terminal Market. He pledged to invest in the market but never did. Instead, he increased rents by 400 percent, and made tenants put up other onerous funds to secure space at the market. By 1978, 30 of Reading Terminal's 56 tenants had left. That prompted Reading Co. officials to buy Rappaport out of the lease and take over operations at the market. In another notorious episode, Rappaport was found guilty in 1959 of mail fraud. He served 10 months of a year-long sentence and was made to pay a $19,000 fine. Rappaport was found to have used fake businesses and dummy stores for credit references to swindle $130,000 in merchandise. While Rappaport didn't like to talk to reporters or like getting attention, a man who wore diamond rings and a studded belt buckle shaped like a Rolls Royce logo found that hard to avoid at times. Even after his death, Rappaport continued to make headlines. In 1997, a portion of a wall at a South Broad Street garage that was owned by the estate collapsed. The accident fatally injured Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Berel Caesar. That incident spurred the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections to re-inspect more than 50 properties still owned by the Rappaport estate."

Doctor Accused of Targeting Mosques,
by Rachel La Corte, Yahoo! News (Associated Press), August 23, 2002,
"A podiatrist arrested after authorities found guns and explosives in his home planned to destroy an Islamic education center and dozens of mosques, court documents alleged Friday. Deputies searching Dr. Robert J. Goldstein's home near St. Petersburg found up to 40 weapons, 30 explosive devices, a list of about 50 Islamic worship centers in Florida and detailed plans to bomb an Islamic education center, according to a complaint filed Friday. 'Set timers for approximately 15-20 minutes to allow for enough time to get out of area, but to confirm explosions has (sic) been successful,' reads an outline of the attack, according to court documents. 'The amount of explosives should be ample to take down the building(s).' Police believe Goldstein planned to use VCR tapes and walkie-talkies to hide explosive devices or detonators, sheriff's Detective Cal Dennie said. 'He was just a smart guy,' Dennie said. 'He knew his stuff. It was like a James Bond thing.'" |

Web warfare: Academics Who Criticise Israeli Actions Against the Palestinians Are Being Targeted By Computer Hackers,
Guardian (UK), October 1, 2002
"A new front in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been opened in the US and the UK. It has not been opened by Islamic fundamentalists, or radical Palestinians, but by American and Israeli computer hackers. Action on this new front has taken the form of identity theft, harassment, incitement to harassment, defamation of character and malicious misrepresentation through the misuse and misappropriation of computer email facilities and lists. In the process, the reliability of the web-based system of communication has been undercut, the integrity of some very prestigious universities have been called into question, and the judgment of law enforcement authorities made to look tainted with bias. Let me give a number of examples. In early July, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Marc Dworkin, using a university email account, sent a message to recipients of his email lists directing them to harass Professor Mona Baker at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. His exact words, after giving Professor Baker's email address and telephone number, were 'harrass (sic) the motherfucker.' This was his way of expressing his disagreement with Professor Baker over her support of the boycott of Israel. Soon Professor Baker was receiving hundreds of obscene and threatening communications."


Leading Montreal lawyer facing fraud charges Harry Bloomfield: Accused of aiding in US$17M 'pump and dump' scheme,
National Post (Canada), October 9, 2002
"A prominent Montreal lawyer and philanthropist, who served on the board of the Business Development Bank of Canada, is on trial in New York on 22 counts of criminal conspiracy. Authorities in the United States allege Harry Bloomfield, 58, helped organize a complex international stock fraud that used dummy offshore companies to bilk unsuspecting investors out of US$17 million ... . A senior partner in the law firm Bloomfield Bellemare, Mr. Bloomfield acts as a director to a number of banks and other companies, including Heller Financial Canada Ltd. and the Vermont Telephone Co. A member of the Progressive Conservative party who ran, unsuccessfully, in the 1980 federal election in the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, he was appointed to the Business Development Bank of Canada in 1987 by then prime minister Brian Mulroney. Mr. Bloomfield was chairman of the BDBC's audit committee from 1987 to 1991 ... . A fixture on Montreal's social circuit, he is renowned for making large public donations on behalf of his family and the charitable foundation that it manages. A number of Canadian public institutions and buildings are named after his family, including a wing of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and a student centre at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. He holds many titles, including Knight of Justice of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and Queen's Counsel. He is also the former national vice-president of B'Nai Brith Canada, and Canada's current consul general to Liberia, a position formerly held by his late uncle, Louis Mortimer Bloomfield."

Spammers Hit HNN,
History News Network (George MasonUniversity, October 9, 2002
"On Wednesday, HNN's website at George Mason University was hacked. The hackers, operating from multiple remote computers, succeeded in commandeering the HNN service which allows readers to send an article to a friend. Acting in the wee hours of the morning, the hackers emailed an HNN article to some 18,000 people. The emails bore the return addresses of the so-called 'Campus Watch 8,' the professors who have been targeted by [Jewish professor] Daniel Pipes's Campus Watch website for allegedly harboring an anti-Israel bias. Across the top of the article was the statement: 'Terrorist lovers burn in Hell.' The article the spammers sent? An HNN breaking news bulletin from September 23 about spammers who had inundated the mailboxes of the Campus Watch professors with up to 1,400 unwanted emails a day."

Lawyers Seek to Sever Bombing Trial Courts: Defense team says jurors will be prejudiced if two JDL leaders are tried together for alleged plot,
by David Rosenzweig, Los Angeles Times, October 10, 2002
"Attorneys for Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin said Wednesday that jurors will be severely prejudiced if he is tried alongside his longtime associate, Earl Krugel, on charges of conspiring to bomb a mosque in Culver City and a congressman's field office in San Diego County. In papers filed in U.S. District Court, Rubin's lawyers asked that the defendants' Nov. 12 trial be severed. Rubin contends he had nothing to do with the alleged plot to bomb the King Fahd mosque in Culver City and a field office of U.S. Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Vista), an Arab American, last year. Krugel's defense is that he was illegally entrapped by a former league member turned government informer. To counter Krugel's entrapment claim, prosecutors are expected to present evidence that he was involved in at least two previous bombing plots. Any such evidence is likely to rub off on Rubin and prejudice him in the eyes of a jury, defense attorneys Peter Morris and Bryan Altman argued in their severance motion ... Rubin's defense also contended that jurors will be prejudiced during a joint trial because of the 'many disgusting racial remarks' that Krugel made during secretly recorded meetings with the government informant, Danny Gillis. According to a partial transcript of one meeting, Krugel and Gillis traded racist quips about Arabs and blacks."

Waksal Pleads Guilty to Six Charges,
ABC News, October 15, 2002
"ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal pleaded guilty Tuesday to bank fraud and conspiracy in an insider trading scandal that threatens Martha Stewart and her home decorating empire. In an unusual move, prosecutors also said they are investigating a previously undisclosed sale of $30 million in ImClone stock by a Waksal associate that may result in new insider trading charges. The admission from Waksal, 55, is the second guilty plea in the investigation. An assistant to Stewart's stockbroker pleaded guilty this month to a misdemeanor charge and agreed to testify against people charged in the case."

Global creditors may go after Winnick's money-report Reuters,
Forbes, October 17, 2002
"A Global Crossing Ltd. creditors' group asked longtime Chairman Gary Winnick on Wednesday to resign from the telecommunications company he founded and said it may try to tap the billionaire philanthropist's personal fortune to recoup corporate funds, The Los Angeles Times said. The request, made by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court committee of unsecured creditors, marks the first time that anyone has formally sought the ousting of Winnick from Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January after incurring billions of dollars of debt while building a worldwide fibre-optic network ... Winnick has been criticised for encouraging lavish executive pay packages and perks, The Times said."

Ira Einhorn Found Guilty of Murder. '70s Hippie Guru, Longtime Fugitive Ira Einhorn Found Guilty in 1977 Slaying,
ABC News, Oct. 17, 2002
"Former hippie guru Ira Einhorn, who hid out in Europe for nearly 17 years after being charged with killing his girlfriend, was found guilty Thursday of murdering her and stuffing her mummified corpse in his closet. Einhorn, 62, faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. Einhorn was a 1970s counterculture superstar who held 'be-in' events and counted yippie Jerry Rubin and rock star Peter Gabriel among his acquaintances. He insisted he was innocent and said he last saw 30-year-old Holly Maddux as she left to make a phone call. He said he had no idea how her body turned up in a steamer trunk in his closet. The guilty verdict capped a stunning fall for a gadfly who lived the life of a country gentleman during his time in France. He appeared on television shows after his arrest five years ago to discuss his plight and posed naked in his garden for Esquire magazine. Prosecutors said Einhorn was a loutish womanizer who turned violent whenever a woman wanted to leave him. They had him read to jurors from his poems and diary entries, in which he wrote 'to kill what you love when you can't have it seems so natural' and 'violence always marks the end of a relationship.'"

Utah to pursue Goldman despite 'global' deal,
Financial Times, October 20 2002
"Utah securities regulators are vowing to press their investigation of Goldman Sachs over alleged conflicts of interest even if the bank takes part in a so-called 'global' settlement being negotiated by securities regulators and Wall Street. Anthony Taggart, director of the securities department at the Utah Department of Commerce, said he was committed to unearthing any instances where Goldman's stock research might have been tainted by investment banking considerations. The strategy reflects securities regulators' desire to reform Wall Street research practices to protect future investors while seeking restitution for those who may have already lost money. It is also a reminder that one of the biggest threats facing investment banks in the current regulatory campaign is not simply new rules or fines but also a slew of potential investor lawsuits. 'We would like to help investors in some manner,' Mr Taggart said. 'One thing we can do is find evidence of wrongdoing so we can help investors in lawsuits and arbitration." A group of Goldman stock analysts had already been interviewed by officials from the New York Stock Exchange, which is helping Utah examine Goldman as part of the wider probe into the securities industry, Mr Taggart said."

Ryder shoplift trial to begin Defense says star's arrest was setup,
San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 2002
"Actress Winona Ryder's arrest led to jokes on late-night television about her allegedly sticky fingers, triggered the production of 'Free Winona' T- shirts and inspired a comic play about her plight. Now, 10 months later, the Oscar-nominated actress, who was raised in Petaluma, is starring as criminal defendant in a real-life drama featuring a varied cast: hawk-eyed Saks security guards, employees from other high-end department stores and Beverly Hills police officers who handcuffed America's most famous shoplifting suspect ... Ryder, born Winona Laura Horowitz, grew up in Petaluma. Her parents were friends of poet Allen Ginsberg, and her godfather was Timothy Leary."

Weill Says He Stands With Citigroup,
Forbes, October 23, 2002
"At this point in the Wall Street story, a conflict of interests has emerged between the conflict of interests. The Wall Street Journal reported early today that the New York attorney general's office is 'stepping up pressure' on Citigroup by seeking to question Chairman and Chief Executive Sanford Weill 'after gathering new evidence in its broad investigation' into research activities at the financial services giant. In a memo to his senior management also published as a press release, Weill denied the story within hours of it being posted on the Journal's Web site and said, in effect, he will stand with the bank he loves and noted that his retaining a lawyer should imply nothing to the contrary. After all, the lawyer he retained, Martin Lipton, is a corporate lawyer, not a divorce lawyer nor a criminal lawyer. Besides which, Sandy and Marty are good friends ... [I]f anyone has a conflict of interest, it could well be Lipton, who is advising the chairman and the bank. It isn't clear what 'new evidence' the attorney general has uncovered about Weill, but the Journal's report suggests that it may have something to do with Weill's membership on the board of AT&T ... Weill's memo quotes Lipton's 'strong response' to the idea that there may be a conflict between the bank and its chairman: 'The notion that there could be any charge against Sandy Weill is inconceivable. There is no divergence between the interests of Sandy and Citigroup,' Lipton said. As it happens, Lipton's firm, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, also represents AT&T. Is this another conflict? Or have we heard a little too much about conflicts."

Feds Throw The Book At Fastow,
Forbes, October 31, 2002
"U.S. federal prosecutors have indicted Andrew Fastow [who is Jewish], former Enron chief financial officer, on charges that he set up and manipulated a group of off-the-books partnerships to hide the bankrupt company's debt and line his own pockets with millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. The move was expected, as prosecutors had filed a complaint against Fastow on Oct. 2 and were required by federal law to bring an indictment within 30 days. The charges included 78 counts of securities, wire and mail fraud, money laundering and conspiring to inflate Enron's profits and enrich himself at the company's expense. Fastow is the first former top executives at Enron to be indicted. Investigators say Fastow made at least $30 million on the partnerships during his tenure as CFO from 1999 until October 2001. Massive losses from various Enron partnerships hid billions in debt, inflated profits and were directly responsible for the company's eventual bankruptcy filing in December 2001."

Jailed JDL Leader Attempts Suicide,
EV1, (Associated Press), November 4, 2002
"Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin, jailed for allegedly plotting to bomb a mosque and an Arab-American congressman's office, was hospitalized Monday after trying to kill himself, a U.S. Marshal's Service spokesman said. Rubin used a razor blade in the 6 a.m. suicide attempt and was undergoing surgery at a hospital five hours later, spokesman Bill Woolsey said. Rubin was scheduled to appear in court Monday for a hearing in his case. There were conflicting reports about Rubin's condition. His wife, Shelley, and son, Ari, told The Associated Press they were told by Rubin's lawyers that Rubin had died in surgery after slashing his neck with a razor and jumping over a railing as he was called out of his cell at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center. They said he fell up to 18 feet. Bryan Altman, one of the attorneys, refused to confirm that account but said he would issue a statement later."

The Pritzkers' Superior Headache,
Forbes, November 5, 2002
"Who's to blame for the failure of Superior Bank, the Illinois thrift half-owned by the Pritzker [the Pritzkers are Jewish] family ? Depends on whom you ask. On Nov. 1 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. pointed the finger at Ernst & Young, Superior's auditor, in a fraud suit filed in federal court here. But that action comes two months after a group of Superior depositors accused the bank's owners and directors, including two members of the Pritzker family, of racketeering, claiming they lined their pockets with money looted from Superior savings accounts ... The suit, filed by three Superior depositors on behalf of 1,406 individuals who had accounts there, names Thomas Pritzker and cousin Penny Pritzker as defendants, along with 10 other executives and co-owners, plus Ernst & Young ... In the meantime, the complaint alleges, the thrift's directors were sucking money out of the thrift by collecting dividends totaling $200 million on Superior's earnings--earnings that, as it turned out, didn't exist. The bulk of those dividends--$188 million--was paid to Coast-to-Coast Financial, the holding company that owned Superior and was controlled by Tom Pritzker and business partner Alvin Dworman. That would've more than quadrupled the $42.5 million the Pritzkers and Dworman paid for Superior in 1988. Tom Pritzker also runs Hyatt, which the family reportedly has been prepping for an initial public offering, as well as the family's investments in Royal Caribbean Cruises ... Last December the family cut a settlement deal with the FDIC, agreeing to pay $100 million upfront and another $360 million over 15 years. But don't count the Pritzkers out yet. In a bizarre twist, the Pritzkers could conceivably turn a profit if the agency wins its lawsuit against Ernst & Young. The family stands to collect 25% of any money the FDIC collects, as negotiated in the December settlement agreement. Even beyond that, the FDIC seems to be going out of its way to appease the Pritzkers."

Soros to stand in French insider trading trial,
New Zealand Herald, November 7, 2002
"Billionaire US financier George Soros and three others go on trial in France today accused of insider trading linked to a failed 1988 takeover bid for the French bank Societe Generale. The four are accused of earning some US$11 million ($22.44 million) speculating on Societe Generale stocks before the takeover bid became public knowledge ... Soros took the international stage 10 years ago as 'The Man Who Broke the Pound' after he calculated correctly that sterling would not hold its allotted value in the European currency grid that prefigured the euro single currency. Funds he managed made nearly US$1 billion when sterling was finally forced from the grid by waves of speculation against it."

'Miss Cleo' Settles With Federal Government, Agrees to Forgive $500 Million in Customer Debts,
ABC News, November 14, 2002
"The operators of Miss Cleo's psychic hot line agreed Thursday to cancel $500 million in customer bills to settle federal charges that the service fleeced callers while promising mystical insights into love and money. The settlement requires Access Resource Services Inc. and Psychic Readers Network Inc. to stop using pay-per-call numbers to sell their soothsaying services, the Federal Trade Commission said. The two Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based companies, which promoted a national network of 'psychic readers' on television and the Internet, also must pay the FTC a $5 million fine ... The amount involved eclipses the record $215 million that Citigroup Inc. agreed to repay customers in September to settle deceptive lending charges involving mortgages and credit insurance. The FTC filed a lawsuit in February accusing the companies of misdeeds including false promises of free psychic readings, tricky billing tactics to squeeze money out of callers and unrelenting and abusive telemarketing calls. The action was prompted by more than 2,000 complaints. The FTC said the psychic service promised a free reading, but consumers calling a toll-free number were directed to a 900 number charging $4.99 per minute. The agency said nearly 6 million people made such calls and were charged an average of about $60. The government said operators made the calls last as long as possible by telling callers they would not be charged while on hold. A telephone bill running into the hundreds of dollars was the first sign for many callers that they were being charged. The FTC also accused the psychic service of violating telemarketing rules by harassing people and making calls to those who asked to be on a 'do not call' list. The agency said many consumers received up to 10 calls a day, usually automated messages telling them that 'Miss Cleo had a dream about them and they should call back' ... Also in October, a Missouri court sentenced the service's two owners, Steven Feder and Peter Stolz , to probation and fines, resolving criminal charges of unlawful merchandising practices."

Journalist Sues for 'Advertising Value' of his name. Seeks More Than $30 Million From Ted Koppel and ABC,
Ad Age, November 18, 2002
"TV Journalist Ted Koppel and his employer ABC have been sued for more than $30 million by a freelance journalist who alleges they stole his exclusive 1997 story about the whereabouts of former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. Filed Oct. 30 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit, by freelance reporter Nate Thayer, accuses Mr. Koppel and ABC of copyright infringement, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, tortious interference with business relations and fraud ... Jeffrey Schneider, vice president of ABC News, said, 'We find it unfortunate that Mr. Thayer and his lawyers have attempted to attack the good name of one of America's most respected news broadcasts as well as a journalist of impeccable reputation. We look forward to the opportunity to prove in court that Thayer's claims have no merit.'"

Metal Men: Marc Rich and the $10 Billion Scam,
by A. Craig Copetas, fictionwise.com
"How did Marc Rich make over 10 billion dollars and pay so little in taxes? Journalist A. Craig Copetas has infiltrated the inner circle of the commodities market and Rich's associates to show not only how Rich pulled off the scam, becoming one of America's most wanted criminals, but also how other traders have used the same model to evade taxes as well. Currently the center of yet another great controversy, Rich was wanted for evading almost 90 million dollars in taxes and if caught, would have to potentially serve a jail term of over 300 years. METAL MEN is the story of international intrigue spanning the globe from the inside of the White House to the Kremlin. Copetas has written a brilliantly researched work that exposes the inner workings of one of country's largest scams ... A commodity trader with a Midas touch, Mr. Rich from the late 1970s until the present ran a multibillion-dollar empire that stretched from Russian nickel mines through Malaysian tin deposits and into trading rooms in London, Hong Kong and New York. He owned a fleet of oil tankers, counted Henry Kissinger and Placido Domingo as his friends, and married the heiress to the Florsheim shoe fortune. He had a $9.5 million home along Spain's Costa Brava and maintained equally lavish residences in Switzerland and Israel. Mr. Rich purchased Picassos and grain silos, scooped up Hollywood studio 20th Century-Fox at one point and helped bankroll everything from the Jamaican Olympic team to the Rhodes prep school in Manhattan. Although his personal wealth is a closely guarded secret, Mr. Rich is routinely estimated to have a net worth in excess of $1 billion ... But despite his wealth and power, there was one thing Mr. Rich could not do for the past 17 years: set foot on U.S. soil. For Mr. Rich, until Bill Clinton granted him a presidential pardon, was the most wanted white-collar fugitive in American history. This was a man who fled to a safe haven in Switzerland just before being indicted in 1983 on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering, trading with Iran despite a trade embargo and evading more than $48 million in U.S. income taxes. Today, he is free to return to America, his past record forever cleansed of legal stain by the pardon Mr. Clinton issued in his last day as president. The pardon has drawn sharp criticism. Former U.S. Justice Department officials have characterized it as 'outrageous' and 'disgusting.' ... This is his story. The son of a poor Jewish scrap-metal trader in Antwerp, Belgium, Mr. Rich was born as Marc Reich on Dec. 18, 1934 ... During one of his many trips back to headquarters in New York each year, he met Denise Joy Eisenberg, the heir to the Florsheim fortune. They were married in 1966, but there was no question of settling down. In 1967, Phillip Brothers transferred Mr. Rich to Madrid along with a fellow trader, Pincus "Pinky" Green, an orthodox Jew whose dirty shirts and sneakers contrasted with Mr. Rich's elegant suits and trademark flashy neckties. Together, they developed a system that allowed Philipp Brothers to bypass the major oil companies, the "Seven Sisters" who then controlled the world's oil supplies. They had invented spot oil trading ... In November 1973, Messrs. Rich and Green walked away from Philipp Brothers and started Marc Rich AG, the Swiss trading company that would become the cornerstone of Mr. Rich's empire. The company that was financed through a $2 million loan arranged by Rich's father through a Bolivian bank and a $1 million cash injection by Jacques Hacheul, a Philipp Brothers trader [and also Jewish] who had joined them in the mutiny."

Torrance Fire Tied to JDL Member. Courts: Man allegedly boasted of firebombing the "Holocaust deniers" bookstore,
By Matt Krasnowski / Copley News Service, Daily Breeze (Torrance, California) November 27, 2002
" A Jewish Defense League member claimed credit in a taped conversation for firebombing a 'Nazi bookstore' that law enforcement sources contend is the 1984 arson fire that destroyed the Torrance office of a group that claims the Holocaust was a hoax. Prosecutors alleged in court Monday that during their investigation of JDL member Earl Krugel he claimed credit for a firebombing of a bookstore. They refused to discuss the bookstore allegation beyond what was in the paperwork. But a law enforcement source familiar with the probe said investigators strongly believe Krugel is referring to the July 4, 1984, firebombing of the Torrance office of the Institute for Historical Review, which was a lightning rod for controversy during the early 1980s. The fire at the group's Noontide Press, 2539 W. 237th St., was believed to be started by a Molotov cocktail or by someone dousing the building with gasoline and igniting it, police said at the time. The fire caused $300,000 to $400,000 damage. Krugel is currently in custody and was arrested last year along with late JDL chairman Irv Rubin on charges of plotting to bomb a Culver City mosque and an office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista ... According to court papers, the informant asked Krugel about the biggest bombing he has 'ever seen, done' and asks if the JDL bombed offices of the Anti-Defamation League. 'Nobody hit the ADL although they deserve it richly,' Krugel reportedly said. 'Uh, no it was on the uh, bookstore... that Nazi bookstore... the Holocaust deniers.' 'I remember you telling me something about that," the informant replies. 'That was beautiful, man,' Krugel said. 'I did it. It was better than I expected.' Krugel also notes that authorities never linked the arson fire to the JDL."

The Latest Kissinger Outrage Why is a proven liar and wanted man in charge of the 9/11 investigation?,
by Christopher Hitchens, Slate, November 27, 2002
"The Bush administration has been saying in public for several months that it does not desire an independent inquiry into the gross 'failures of intelligence' that left U.S. society defenseless 14 months ago. By announcing that Henry Kissinger will be chairing the inquiry that it did not want, the president has now made the same point in a different way. But the cynicism of the decision and the gross insult to democracy and to the families of the victims that it represents has to be analyzed to be believed. 1) We already know quite a lot, thanks all the same, about who was behind the attacks. Most notable in incubating al-Qaida were the rotten client-state regimes of the Saudi Arabian oligarchy and the Pakistani military and police elite. Henry Kissinger is now, and always has been, an errand boy and apologist for such regimes. 2) When in office, Henry Kissinger organized massive deceptions of Congress and public opinion. The most notorious case concerned the 'secret bombing' of Cambodia and Laos and the unleashing of unconstitutional methods by Nixon and Kissinger to repress dissent from this illegal and atrocious policy. But Sen. Frank Church's commission of inquiry into the abuses of U.S. intelligence, which focused on illegal assassinations and the subversion of democratic governments overseas, was given incomplete and misleading information by Kissinger, especially on the matter of Chile. Rep. Otis Pike's parallel inquiry in the House (which brought to light Kissinger's personal role in the not-insignificant matter of the betrayal of the Iraqi Kurds, among other offenses) was thwarted by Kissinger at every turn, and its eventual findings were classified. In other words, the new 'commission' will be chaired by a man with a long, proven record of concealing evidence and of lying to Congress, the press, and the public ... Earlier this year, a London court agreed to hear an application for Kissinger's imprisonment on war crimes charges while he was briefly in the United Kingdom. It is known that there are many countries to which he cannot travel at all, and it is also known that he takes legal advice before traveling anywhere. Does the Bush administration feel proud of appointing a man who is wanted in so many places, and wanted furthermore for his association with terrorism and crimes against humanity? Or does it hope to limit the scope of the inquiry to those areas where Kissinger has clients? There is a tendency, some of it paranoid and disreputable, for the citizens of other countries and cultures to regard President Bush's "war on terror" as opportunist and even as contrived. I myself don't take any stock in such propaganda. But can Congress and the media be expected to swallow the appointment of a proven coverup artist, a discredited historian, a busted liar, and a man who is wanted in many jurisdictions for the vilest of offenses? The shame of this, and the open contempt for the families of our victims, ought to be the cause of a storm of protest."

The Death of a Troublemaker: A Cowboy's Elegy for Irv Rubin,
by [novelist and musician] Kinky Friedman, [Jewish] Forward, November 29, 2002
"To be a hero in today's world, first you have to be dead. Then you have to have been a great trouble-maker, a person not afraid to stir the putrid pot of human history from time to time ... Such a troublemaker, I believe, was the late Irv Rubin. The long-time leader of the Jewish Defense League, Rubin died last week from injuries sustained under what some of us consider highly suspicious circumstances in a Los Angeles prison, where the authorities say he slit his throat and flung himself over a barrier to a courtyard two stories down. [Rubin was incarcerated because he facing trial as a Jewish terrorist, planning to blow up a mosque in Los Angeles] Rubin followed in a long line of great Jewish troublemakers, beginning with Moses, who ended up, it seems, taking two tablets and going to bed, and of course Jesus, who was undeniably a great teacher but just didn't publish. There is a long line of Jewish troublemakers who followed in their footsteps — Baruch Spinoza, Karl Marx, Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, to name just a few — men who were, in their own ways, spiritual beacons in a world largely remarkable for its unwillingness to be led to the light. Does Rubin qualify for membership in this vaulted pantheon of great Jewish troublemakers? Or was he merely a misguided SuperJew? Was he a guy who said: 'It's a dirty job and I get to do it?' Time will tell ... Shall we keep him at arm's length even if he was on our side? Shall we bow our heads and mourn the death of SuperJew? No need to, folks. He's taken his place in that eternal chain of great Jewish trouble-makers who, at most, have altered the history of mankind, and at least have kept the human condition from becoming stultifyingly dull. Personally, I think our boy belongs with Moses and Jesus. Many passive, officious, humorless and constipated people may, indeed, disagree. But even they would have to say this for Irv Rubin: 'You were a fool, God bless you.'"

How The Neturei Karta Fake Diploma Scam Operates,
Jews to Islam
[A discussion of the business of selling fraudulent "university degrees" over the Internet from Jerusalem -- researched by a Jewish convert to Islam]
"The owner of this scam is Yakov Abramowitz otherwise known as Jacob. He is a joint 'Israeli' and USA citizen. B4 becoming a Neturei Karta member he was a Jewish settler. He runs the diploma mill known as University of Palmers Green, University of San Moritz, Harrington University, etc etc. He changes them like bi monthly. I used to work there prior to my conversion to Islam. The scam is run in Jerusalem in the Mea Shareem area."

Zionist Terrorism in Cyberspace,
Boycott Israel,
"Unfortunately not everyone is moral. As soon as we launched the campaign [Boycott Israel] we became the target of the zionists thugs. It started with a campaign of hate mails and virus attacks. Then they threatened our hosting company, demanding they pull our site stating it was anti-Semitic. After submitting our site to netwatch, a UK organization which vets websites for inappropriate or illegal content, and receiving a clear sign that there is nothing illegal or racist on our website, our hosts endured the continued hate mails. We then started receiving hate telephone calls and the police were called in when a mother was threatened over the telephone with 'I know this is your address and that you are alone at home with a child..'. Finally on Monday 22 April, around 2:30pm our website was closed down, our right to express our view was trampled on - we were silenced. Our host company explained that they had received threats and were tipped off by 'a reliable source in the industry' against an imminent attack on their servers. They reasoned that if their servers were attacked they stood a good chance of going out of business overnight. They have 25 employees to support as well as their other clients websites to protect. They said that the decision to pull our site was not an easy one for them as they believe in the ethos of free speech on the internet. They explained that even their bandwidth provider had been threatened and that they had to send a formal email to them confirming that our site was no longer available."

Doctor gave stars drugs, report says Physician prescribed addictive narcotics to Winona Ryder and Courtney Love, a state report says,
Baltimore Sun (from Los Angeles Times), December 10, 2002
"Jules Mark Lusman, whose medical license was revoked last week for prescribing addictive drugs to celebrities, frequently provided narcotics on a 'cash-and-carry' basis to the rich and famous, including Winona Ryder and singer-actress Courtney Love, according to a state report. Lusman, 49, may face criminal prosecution, authorities said Monday. In its report, the Medical Board of California said the Santa Monica physician's stated specialty was laser surgery. But he also catered to 'the demands of wealthy and/or famous drug-seekers for prescription narcotics which would otherwise have to be obtained on the street,' the report stated. The doctor frequently made house calls to celebrities, examining them only briefly before prescribing drugs, the report said. Lusman used one drug, the powerful and potentially addictive Demerol, as 'his first weapon' against pain complaints. The doctor charged thousands of dollars for those house calls; in one case, the doctor received a $3,000 'retainer' charged to a sick patient's credit card. "The reason for such a fee cannot be fathomed," the medical board concluded. In total, Lusman's conduct resembled 'the sub-plot of a Raymond Chandler novel,' the board said."

Planning To Move? - Be Careful Whom You Hire,
by Dan Benson, rense.com, (from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12-9-02), December 15, 2002
"It's not unusual for dozens of moving companies, many of them based in Florida and owned by Israeli nationals, to give low-ball bids and then jack up their prices once a customer's goods are on a truck, consumer advocates say. Many of these companies market themselves over the Internet. Two Advanced Moving Systems movers were arrested in April when they attempted a similar maneuver on a Thiensville couple. Charges were later dropped, but the two men were extradited to North Carolina, where they were found guilty of damaging a customer's property, smashing a piece of furniture each time the customer refused to pay them more money. After a similar incident in Lancaster, Pa., police there said they will arrest Advanced Moving's owner, Zion Rokah, if he ever returns to the area. Zion Rokah is an Israeli national, as was the driver arrested in Thiensville. As Stuckey found out, consumers have little recourse but to pay whatever the mover wants. 'If they ask for $100,000, you'll have to give them $100,000,' Stuckey said U.S. Department of Transportation officials told her when she called them for help. 'They said the only way I'll get satisfaction is if I know a guy named Guido with a submachine gun and go down to Florida.' 'I never in my wildest dreams thought fraud, extortion and theft were legal. But apparently they are,' Stuckey said ... . 'It's the usual cat and mouse, trying to stay one step ahead of the law,' said James Balderrama, a Florida-based operator of www.movingadvocateteam.com, a Web site that targets unscrupulous moves."

French Court Convicts Billionaire Soros,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), December 20, 2002
"A French court on Friday convicted billionaire investor George Soros of insider trading and fined him $2.2 million. The fine by the court is the same amount the Hungarian-born magnate was accused of having made from buying stocks at French bank Societe Generale with insider knowledge 14 years ago. The fine was in line with the request by prosecutors. Soros, 72, the president of Soros Fund Management, denies having privileged information. He was not in court Friday. In court testimony in November, Soros said: 'I have been in business all my life, and I think I know what is insider trading and what isn't.' Societe Generale was privatized in 1987 ... Soros was reportedly the first American to earn $1 billion in a single year. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930, he emigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a citizen five years later. He made his fortune managing investment funds. Forbes magazine ranked him this year as the 37th richest person in the world, with an estimated $6.9 billion fortune."

Handle: Condor a.k.a.: Kevin Mitnick,
Discovery Online, Hackers' Hall of Fame
"Claim to fame: The first hacker to have his face immortalized on an FBI 'Most Wanted' poster. His status as a repeat offender -- a teenage hacker who couldn't grow up -- earned [Kevin] Mitnick the nickname The Lost Boy of Cyberspace. First encountered a computer: As a teenager. Mitnick couldn't afford a computer, so he hung out in a Radio Shack store. He used the store's demo models and modem to dial other computers. Unusual tools: During the three years he was on the lam, Mitnick used Internet Relay Chat (IRC) as a message drop and to communicate with his friends. Little-known fact: Sentenced to a year in a residential treatment center, Mitnick enrolled in a 12-step program to rid himself of what a judge agreed was his "computer addiction." Hey, it's California. Check out: For an update on Mitnick's travails in jail: http://www.2600.com/kevin "

Family of JDL Leader Rubin Sues Gov't,
Newsday, January 24, 2003
"The estate of Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin has filed a $5 million wrongful death claim against the U.S. government in connection with his apparent suicide at a federal detention center. Rubin, 57, was awaiting trial on charges of conspiring to bomb a mosque and a congressman's office when he allegedly slashed his throat with a safety razor and then jumped headfirst from a balcony at the federal lockup. He died in a hospital nine days later. The FBI investigated his death and declared it a suicide. But Rubin's widow, Shelley Rubin, suggested her husband might have been murdered. If the government rejects the wrongful death claim, Rubin's heirs can proceed with a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. Letters sent last week to federal officials by Rubin's family attorney, Peter Morris, did not address the issue of possible foul play. Morris has argued federal agents and employees negligently monitored Rubin during his nearly yearlong stay at the detention center. Morris said he would not rule out the possibility Rubin committed suicide."

Music Legend Arrested In Connection With Murder Investigation Ramones' Singer: Producer Pulled Gun On Band While Making Album,
NBC 4, February 3, 2003
"Rock and Roll Hall of Fame producer Phil Spector, whose revolutionary techniques changed the sound of pop music in the 1960s, was booked for investigation of murder Monday in the shooting death of a woman at a hilltop mansion, deputies said. Shortly after 5 a.m. Monday morning, Alhambra police officers responded to a call from the 1700 block of S. Grandview Drive regarding a shooting, according to the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau. When the officers arrived they discovered that a female had been shot inside the location, according to authorities. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Spector, 62, was arrested around 5 a.m. at the castle-like estate in this suburb about 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, county sheriff's Sgt. Joe Efflandt said. The legendary producer was taken to the Alhambra Police Department for questioning, deputies said. Several witnesses were also being questioned, deputies said. Records indicate he owned the home where he was arrested. Spector is famous for creating the 'Wall of Sound' effect that involved overdubbing scores of musicians to create a full, dramatic sound ... He produced a string of '60s hits, including the Crystals' 'Da Doo Ron Ron' and 'Then He Kissed Me,' the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby' and 'Walking in the Rain,' and Love's 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' and '(Today I Met) the Boy I'm Gonna Marry.' Spector, who produced records for Elvis Presley, Ike and Tina Turner, the Righteous Brothers, the Crystals and Darlene Love, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989. Spector produced the last Beatles album "Let It Be" in 1970. He later worked with John Lennon on "Imagine" and helped Yoko Ono produce Lennon's work after the singer was killed in 1980. He also helped George Harrison on 'All Things Must Pass.' Spector would become reclusive and known for an eccentric lifestyle. He was alleged to have toted a gun and demonstrated some near-psychotic and abusive behavior, according to a 1995 biography by Rolling Stone magazine. 'It had to stop,' Spector said of his behavior in a 1977 Los Angeles Times interview. 'Being the rich millionaire in the mansion and then dressing up as Batman. I have to admit I did enjoy it to a certain extent. But I began to realize it was very unhealthy.'"

Jail Hurwitz,
Web site about Charles Hurwitz, Jewish mogul of corporate giant Maxxam, and subdivision Pacific Lumber. This environmentalist site's root of outrage is Hurwitz's influence in destroying mportant California redwood trees.

JDL member pleads guilty in plot to bomb mosque, congressman's office,
CNN, February 4, 2003
"A member of the Jewish Defense League pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to bomb a mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressmen. As part of a plea bargain that also implicated the group's late leader, Earl Krugel, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of the users of the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an officer of the United States. Krugel said he and Irv Rubin, the late JDL leader, discussed bombing Arab institutions in the Los Angeles area and that it was Rubin who chose to bomb the King Fahd Mosque. According to the plea agreement, both men wanted to bomb the office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif., because the congressman was an Arab-American who 'held political views contrary to their own.' Krugel and Rubin were arrested in 2001. Hours before they were to appear in court Nov. 4, Rubin slashed his neck with a prison-issued razor blade and tumbled 18 feet over a railing at the downtown federal Metropolitan Detention Center. He died nine days later. Rubin's estate has filed a $5 million wrongful death claim against the government. His wife, Shelley, said Monday that she was shocked by the plea agreement and insisted that her late husband had nothing to do with the bombing plot."

Mark Rich Helped KGB Create Hidden Government,
Newsmax, Saturday, March 31, 2001
"Mark Rich, the most-wanted fugitive pardoned by former President Clinton, was a key figure in the Communist Party and the KGB's creation of an underground government that survived the break-up of the Soviet Union and still rules Russia today behind the scenes. As previously reported by NewsMax.com., in 1983, the year Rich fled the U.S. to avoid prosecution, he took advantage of the grain embargo imposed on the USSR by the United States because of their war in Afghanistan. Rich ignored the embargo and imported grain into the Soviet Union, winning friends in the Soviet hierarchy with whom he would ally himself when the Communist government collapsed. According to NewsMax.com sources, from then on Rich was guided in his business dealings 'by the Communist Party and KGB senior figures. Everybody in that carousel, commie and KGB got personal benefits ... commissions in Western accounts.' Thanks to the influence he gained from sharing his profits with Party and KGB officials, Rich was drawn into the inner reaches of the hierarchy that ruled the Soviet union and was included in the creation of the sinister, behind-the-scenes government that was designed to outlive the deliberate dismantling of the Soviet Union. According to Dr. Joseph D. Douglas, an expert in national security matters and a former official of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the Defense Department, Rich played an important part in the deception that allowed the old Communist apparatus to maintain its grip on Russia and the rest of the old Soviet Union after the so-called collapse of communist rule. In an interview with the current New American magazine, Dr. Douglas, an expert on international organized crime and its role in long-term Soviet/Russian strategy, made the startling revelation that "No revolution took place in Russia or the other Soviet "republics" that would account for the sudden dismantling of the Soviet state. Nothing forced the Communist Party of the Soviet Union [CPSU] to relinquish its monopoly on power. In fact, what the CPSU did was diversify its holdings, rather than dispense with its monopoly.' Douglas said that Communist Party bosses surreptitiously 'either created new parties, or took over the leadership of existing ones.' He said that years before the 'end' of the Soviet Union the CPSU and the KGB 'set up all of the structures of what they call the 'invisible party economy.' This was already going on in the early 1980s, even before Gorbachev came along with his 'reforms.'' Because of the hidden superstructure Rich and his KGB colleagues created, members of the Communist nomenklatura had put themselves in a position to become the masters of the new, "privatized" economy."

Israeli Arrested For Smuggling Missiles Into US. Planned To Sell Parts To China,
Information Clearinghouse (from Jerusalem Post), March 3, 2003
"Israeli businessman David Menashe is being held in a federal prison here on charges that he tried to smuggle missile parts into the United States without declaring their proper value and contents to US Customs inspectors. Menashe, 52, managing director of Kam-Tech Systems, Ltd. in Tel Aviv, intended to transship the parts to China before his arrest in an undercover operation, according to prosecuting US Assistant Attorney Mary Carter Andrues. His lawyer, Donald Etra, said that Menashe is innocent of all charges and is a respected member of the Israeli and international business communities ... According to the four-count indictment, Menashe and his company tried to smuggle Hawk Missile and AIM-9 Missile parts into the United States 'by falsely representing the value and contents of the packages to avoid detection by Customs inspectors.'"

[Massive Israeli predation on small-town America:]
16 moving firms indicted. Ex-clients applaud extortion charges; FBI investigated 2 years,
Milwaukee Jornal-Sentinel, March 4, 2003
"Calling it the conclusion of 'Operation Stow Biz,' the FBI unsealed sweeping indictments in Miami Tuesday accusing 16 moving companies of extorting money from consumers, including at least one firm that had dealings with southeastern Wisconsin residents. The indictments conclude a nearly two-year FBI investigation in which agents, armed with furniture on loan from the Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries, impersonated customers and contracted with the companies over the Internet for long-distance moves. One of the indicted companies, Advanced Moving Systems of Sunrise, Fla., and its owner Zion Rokah, made the news last year after run-ins in Thiensville, Milwaukee and New Berlin. In each case, customers said Rokah's company held their furniture hostage and demanded thousands of dollars more than its bids before their furniture would be delivered. Last April, Thiensville police arrested two Advanced Moving Systems employees who allegedly tried to force Paul and Bridget Fletcher to pay about $1,500 more to get their furniture. Charges were dropped against the two men, but they were later convicted of doing the same thing in North Carolina. One of them, Oshri Cohen, is named in the FBI indictment. An Israeli national, he has since been deported. Last summer, Rokah, an Israeli national, told a Journal Sentinel reporter that his legal troubles were due to being singled out by 'stupid, small-town, redneck police' who 'hate Jews and strangers.' Rokah and his employees are facing 60 counts of extortion, conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and making a false bill of lading, the most against any single company the agents were investigating. Each count of making a false bill of lading and committing wire and mail fraud carries a potential penalty of five years imprisonment and $250,000 in fines. Each count of extortion carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The indictments against Rokah also include a forfeiture provision for at least $1 million, two parcels of land, four moving trucks and five bank accounts, assets that could eventually be used to compensate victims, Miami-based FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said. All told, the indictment names 74 moving company operators and employees. The 16 companies operated under 42 different names, the indictment says. One of the employees named in Tuesday's indictment is Eli Peretz of Advanced Moving Systems. But when Heather and Doug Wilson hired Peretz in fall to move their furniture to Greenfield from Alexandria, Va., he said he worked for Nation Van Lines ... Forty-six people, including Peretz, have so far been arrested. Rokah is still at large, Orihuela said ... James Balderrama, a consumer advocate based in Orlando, Fla., who has been on a two-year crusade against rogue movers, clapped his hands when he read the indictments during an interview with a reporter ... Balderrama assisted the FBI investigation but became so frustrated waiting for arrests to be made that he posted the phone numbers of FBI agents involved in the investigation on his Web site - www.movingadvocateteam.com - and urged consumers to call them directly."

[Per the above Israeli scam-a-thon, swindling Americans. It looks like half the Israelis in America are being indicted in this scam. Oh, wait. These are local representatives of our beloved Middle East partner in world ruin. Perhaps the accusations are a mistake. It must be small-town American "anti-Semitism." Everyone knows these people are all automatically innocent, BECAUSE they are Jews.]
Press Release,
U.S. Department of Justice, March 4, 2003
INDICTMENTS:
1. Zion Rokah, Tamir Cohen, Odelia Shmuelov, Susanne Schwedhelm, Diana Bar, Choni Aloul, Guy Ashkenazi, Ronen Bar, Eddei Benita, Oshri Cohen, Yehiel Cohen, Mordechay Evgi, Itzhak Luzon, Shlomo Molaim, Eli Peretz, Lior Rafael, Yosef Schvartzman, Eyal Zeira, Yaron Israel, Rafi Rafael, Criminal Case No. 03-60032-Cr-Marra.
2. Yair Malol, Yosef Zaguri, Jennifer Tafuri Vaknin, Shani Humphreys, Avraham Ohayon, Timna Levy, Shimon Buhdana, Shay Cohen, Nissim Edri, Guy Kalev, Neil Shlomo Liebich, Michel Malka, Sivan Maoz, Rafi Rafael, Hod Shlit, Izezo Uzi Elena, Assaf Khuri, Shabtai Shay Mashiah, Criminal Case No. 03-20157-Cr-King
3. Moshe Bachar, Edmond Ben-Ami, Rafael Assoulin, Sharon Elmakias, Firas Hleihil, Baruch Shalit, and Wanderson Da Silva, Criminal Case No. 03-60030-Cr-Marra.
4. Boris Gavergun, Jenny Shenaider, Avishag Simon, Atalya Yassori Shimonov, Eliyahu Shimonov, Shai Oren, Gaston Saleme, Criminal Case No. 03-60034-Cr-Hurley.
5. Eyal Malul, Mordechay Evgi, Kessey Esteves, Izabella Maria Fonseca, Claudio Descart, Sergio Descart, Golan Eliatim, Yuval Perez, Criminal Case No. 03-60033-Cr-Middlebrooks.
6. Niv Borsuk, Meir Perez, Adi Meirovitch, Ilanit Fitoussi, Elizabeth Hartenberger, Criminal Case No. 03-20138-Cr-Marra.
7. Simo Elbaz, Yehiel Toledano, Moran Shepkaru, Hanania Dahan, Moshe Elmakias, Muin Naserat, Ronen Ovadia, Criminal Case No. 03-20139-Cr-Marra.
8. Anat Ben-Zion, Lior Bar, Walter Keener, and Roee Bugatti, Criminal Case No. 03-20128-Cr- Lenard.

[Postville is the Iowa town that has been taken over by the Chabad ultra-Orthodox organization.]
Cattle trader will be deported after prison,
Omaha World Herald, March 15, 2003
"An Israeli cattle trader who pleaded guilty to federal immigration charges will be deported after he serves his prison sentence, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Yehiel Meir Zaidorf, 30, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to unlawful entry following deportation and using a false passport to obtain a driver's license. He faces up to two years in prison, a $250,000 fine and one year of supervised release when he is sentenced. A date for sentencing hasn't been set. Zaidorf, who was in New York, was removed from the United States in November 2001 after he was found to be in the country illegally, U.S. Attorney Richard Murphy said. He was arrested in Decorah in November on suspicion of resisting arrest and on a warrant for charges in Minnesota, Murphy said. Zaidorf had an Iowa driver's license with a different name and a Postville address. Investigators said he used an altered passport to apply for the license. In December, he pleaded guilty to writing a bad check for $4,300 under a fake name when he bought seven head of cattle at a Minnesota livestock auction, authorities said."

SEC Charges Minnesota Man With Stock Fraud,
by Judith Burns, The Spamhaus Project
(from Dow Jones Newswires), February 19
"Securities regulators filed a lawsuit against a Minnesota man who allegedly used mass e-mail spam to commit stock fraud. Samuel Meltzer, 37 years old, of St. Paul, Minn., operated under at least 30 different assumed identities online to push penny stocks, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y. Mr. Meltzer claimed to recommend investments based on his own research when he was touting stocks he was paid to promote, the SEC said. The SEC also claims Mr. Meltzer included false and misleading information about the stocks in his e-mails and Web sites. Regulators estimate Mr. Meltzer received about $160,000 in stock and cash to promote a dozen or more stocks from 1998 to 2001. The SEC is seeking a court order that would force Mr. Meltzer to stop the alleged fraud, return his fees, pay a fine and be barred from the penny-stock business."

Cases vs. Diamond dismissed,
New York Daily News, April 3, 2003
"The Commission on Judicial Conduct has dismissed more than a dozen complaints against Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Marylin Diamond, even as the FBI opened a case into whether she engaged in potential conflicts of interest from the bench. The commission, which is run by Gerald Stern, dismissed all of the complaints without contacting the people who wrote his agency letters. Instead, Stern's agency sent a form letter that read in part, 'There was 'insufficient indication of judicial misconduct.' Yesterday, Stern refused to comment. "I cannot discuss complaints as a matter of law," he said. The commission had received letters from members of the Diamond Support Group, a group that says the judge ruled against them during their divorce cases because of political and personal vendettas. Diamond has denied the allegations. Some of the men in the group also said they were questioned after Diamond began receiving a slew of threatening letters - missives that a criminal profiler and police believe the judge wrote herself to justify around-the-clock police protection. The police never proved she wrote the letters, and Diamond has repeatedly denied she did so. Last week, the Daily News reported that the FBI's corruption unit also has launched an investigation of Diamond. FBI agents met with some of the men in the Diamond Support Group, and have been poring through documents related to her cases. Dismayed Anthony DeRosa, a Wall Street researcher who has met with special agents dozens of times since the FBI probe into Diamond began in January, said he was 'flabbergasted' that Stern dismissed their claims without an investigation. 'It's totally irresponsible," DeRosa said. "They never met with any of us. They never even called us. They just sent out form letters without any investigation whatsoever.'"

GIA Legal Actions Stop the Use of Counterfeit Diamond Grading Reports,
Gemological Institute of America, April 21, 2003
"Through a series of legal actions initiated in three countries, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has halted an international operation that was using counterfeit GIA Diamond Grading Reports to support diamond sales, chiefly via the Internet. GIA filed a lawsuit in Chicago, Ill. alleging counterfeiting against Moti Weisbrot, the leader of the counterfeiting activity, and others who participated in the activities by either producing counterfeit reports or agreeing to sell diamonds accompanied by the counterfeit documents. GIA is obtaining permanent injunctions against the participants in these actions, thereby stopping the counterfeiting activities. GIA also filed a counterfeiting lawsuit against Mr. Weisbrot in Israel. Additionally, GIA initiated a criminal prosecution against Mr. Weisbrot in Italy. The legal actions were the culmination of an exhaustive process, involving GIA’s team of attorneys and investigators and a number of law enforcement agencies, that began in late February based on tips from sources inside and outside the gem and jewelry industry."

[The omnipresent Jewish dual standard throughout American culture: one standard for Jews (who are secularly sacred) and anotherstandard for everyone else:]
Terrorism or hate crime? U.S. authorities apply different labels to crimes committed by two extremists -- one Muslim, the other Jewish,
by Eric Boehlert, salon.com, April 17, 2003
"On Independence Day last summer, a depressed 41-year-old Muslim immigrant by the name of Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, whose views on the Arab-Israeli conflict had become increasingly extreme, approached the ticket counter of the Israeli-run El Al airline at Los Angeles International Airport. Loaded down with a recently purchased .45-caliber semiautomatic Glock pistol, a 9 mm handgun and a 6-inch knife, he opened fire. During a 30-second rampage, Hadayet emptied the 10-round revolver, killing two people and injuring scores more, before an El Al security guard shot him dead. Six weeks later, in Tampa, Fla., a depressed Jewish podiatrist by the name of Dr. Robert Goldstein, 38, who wanted to send a message on behalf of 'his people' following the attacks of Sept. 11, and to express his anger over the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict, was arrested after police raided his home. There they discovered a detailed plan to blow up 50 local mosques and Islamic centers, 'kill all 'rags‚'' and 'liquidate' Muslims during the attacks if necessary. Police also uncovered a vast illegal stash of weapons, including 30 explosive devices, light-armor rockets, hand grenades, a 5-gallon gasoline bomb, .50-caliber machine guns, silencers, and sniper rifles. Ultimately, law enforcement authorities would label one man a terrorist, and the other a dangerous but deluded perpetrator of hate crimes. How do two crimes with similarities that seem highly relevant in the midst of a war on terrorism come to be defined so differently? Some observers cite paranoia in the wake of Sept. 11 as the reason. Others don't. But even some law enforcement officials are stymied by the choices made by their colleagues in the two cases."

Enron's crime family?,
by William McQuillen, Chicago Sun-Times, May 2, 2003
"The U.S. widened its investigation into Enron Corp., adding 31 charges against ex-Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and accusing his wife as well as former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan and eight other former executives of taking part in a fraud that destroyed the company. The indictments bring the total to 19 in the government's probe of one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history, one that wiped out $68 billion in the energy trader's market value ... Fastow's wife, Lea Weingarten Fastow, who also worked at Enron as it rose to become the seventh-biggest company in the United States, was accused of fraud, taking part in a money-laundering conspiracy and filing false tax returns. Her husband, who was indicted in October and has pleaded innocent, was again named in the latest indictments that charge him with masterminding the accounting fraud that cost investors billions of dollars. Fastow, 41, the highest-ranking Enron executive to be charged, was accused of 109 counts in the new indictment, up from 78 previous charges ... Lea Fastow, heir to a Houston grocery store and real estate fortune, met her husband during their first year at Tufts University."

Cloudcroft chief stops Israelis with suspicious cargo,
By Michael Shinabery, Alomogordo News (New Mexico), May 19, 2003
"That they were speeding through the school zone first got his attention. That they had Israeli driver's licenses and expired passports made him suspicious. Cloudcroft Police Chief Gene Green stopped the 2-ton van on Thursday, for speeding. Initially, Green thought the truck was commercial because of exterior markings. But when he found it was out of Chicago, he asked for documentation such as logs books and manifests. 'They said this is a U-Haul truck and handed me a rental agreement (for) in-town delivery only in Illinois, (which) had expired two days before,' Green said. He called for backup, and Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Billy Anders, who patrols the Sacramento Mountains, arrived, along with Capt. Norbert Sanchez and Det. Eddie Medrano. 'We got them out and started digging a little deeper,' Green said, 'got permission to search the truck. They claimed they were hauling furniture from Austin to Chicago.' When officers advised the men they were not exactly en route from one town to another, Green said the two men claimed they were Deming bound. 'But they couldn't give us an address in Deming they were going to,' he said. 'Once we got into the truck, they had some junk furniture I wouldn't have given to Goodwill.' Also inside the vehicle were, Green said, '50 boxes' they claimed was a "private" delivery, but the men insisted they had no 'idea what was in them.' At that point, the officers called for drug-sniffing and bomb-sniffing dogs. The men were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U-Haul recovered the truck. Contents of the boxes remain unknown, pending investigation."

Telegraph boss under fire over payments,
By Raymond Snoddy, Times Online (London), May 22, 2003
"Media Editor LORD [Conrad] BLACK of Crossharbour, the chairman of Hollinger International, is facing a call for a formal investigation into $73.7 million (£45 million) of payments made to senior executives of the media group. The call, on the eve of what is expected to be an acrimonious annual meeting in New York today, comes from lawyers representing Tweedy,Browne, a New York investment company. The payments to Hollinger executives were part of 'non-compete' agreements signed when the owner of the Daily Telegraph sold a number of its North American newspapers. The $73.7 million was paid in compensation for the directors agreeing not to set up or own competing titles. The money, Tweedy, Browne says, should have gone to the company rather than to Lord Black and three other directors. The letter and documents, also filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, call for the “disgorgement of the payments” made under the non-compete agreements. Christopher Browne, manager of Tweedy, Browne, which owns 13.2 million shares in Hollinger International, said that he expected the independent directors of the company to investigate the payments. The independent directors include Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of State, and Richard Perle, former chairman of the Defence Policy Board."

[Lobbyist Organization for Special Treatment for Jewish Criminals:]
The Aleph Institute, Alternative Sentencing Proposals Consulting Services for Attorneys Counseling to Offenders and their Families
"Since 1981, The Aleph Institute has grown to become the nation’s foremost non-profit agency working with and on behalf of Jewish men and women affected by the criminal justice system, and addresses significant issues relating to families in crisis and ancillary effects of prison policies. Over the past twenty years, Aleph has created and implemented programs that counsel offenders and their families, and assist lawyers in eliminating or reducing excessive periods of incarceration. Aleph is the only Jewish organization providing such a wide range of specialized professional services nationwide. Pre-sentencing, Aleph prepares proposals for courts across the United States, presenting judges with alternative means to provide punishment while eliminating or minimizing periods of incarceration – and the accompanying separation from family and productive living. In providing these specialized professional services, Aleph has worked with many of the foremost attorneys and criminal justice specialists in the country, and makes available a nationwide network of sentencing specialists, former parole and probation officers, forensic psychologists, social workers, immigration specialists and other professionals in this area. In addition to formal court presentations, Aleph’s staff provides invaluable consulting services to attorneys and counseling to offenders and their families at every stage of the proceedings, including attorney referrals, plea agreement strategies, retention of experts, sentencing guidelines analysis, pre-sentencing investigations and court appearances ... Aleph’s rabbis, staff and volunteers regularly visit over 350 state and federal prisons each year and interact with wardens, chaplains and institutional staff on a daily basis. Aleph also receives approximately 600 collect telephone calls and 1,000 letters each month from inmates around the country and their families. As a result, Aleph’s staff can provide unique insights and counseling as to what may be expected in the prison setting, which particular institutions may best meet the particular needs of prospective inmates and their families, and what actions should be taken at each step of the process to secure religious and other needs."

[More Waksal: the child of "Holocaust survivors"]
Who Knew? Martha Stewart and her private banker, Peter Bacanovic, shared a gift for seeming to be perfect. But now the ImClone scandal is widening, and an obstruction-of-justice charge might loom. To paraphrase Martha, that's not a good thing,
"When ImClone chief operating officer Harlan Waksal received the fateful phone call on Christmas Day from Bristol-Myers Squibb warning that the FDA would be rejecting the company's hot new cancer drug, Erbitux, on December 28, one of his first calls was to his brother Sam, staying at the Hotel St. Barth Isle de France. As he does every year, Sam was spending his Christmas there; close pals Harvey Weinstein, financier Arthur Altschul (father of ex-MTV V.J. Serena), and record producer Clive Davis were also on hand, hanging out on the beach. But he cut his vacation short ... To Waksal, the FDA rejection was news bad enough to bend the mind. He was leveraged to the gills with $80 million in debt, $65 million of which was on margin, secured by his stock, which was sure to crater when the FDA made its announcement. His monthly margin bill was a cool $800,000. If ImClone collapsed, he would be ruined. Arriving back at his 5,000-square-foot loft on Thompson Street in Soho that night, he allegedly started working the phones -- first to his father and then, the next morning, his daughter. Martha Stewart was on her way to Mexico for her New Year's holiday. Also an ImClone shareholder, as well as a close friend of Sam's, she had, on December 21, left a contact number with Waksal's office as to her whereabouts in Mexico ... So when the order came in at 9:01 a.m. from Aliza Waksal to sell 39,472 shares, followed by her father Sam's attempt to transfer 79,797 shares into his daughter's Merrill account for another sale, Faneuil, Bacanovic, and the compliance officers at Merrill Lynch became suspicious. Something was up with ImClone. Aliza's shares were sold, but because he was an insider, the father's trade was refused ... On June 12, Sam Waksal was arrested on charges of insider trading. On June 21, Bacanovic and Faneuil were suspended with pay by Merrill Lynch over factual inconsistencies with regard to the Stewart trade. Today, ImClone trades at just under $9. That Sam Waksal will be found guilty seems almost a given. His was an act epic in its stupidity, a desperate, bet-the-ranch gesture by an insecure man in the throes of panic -- and greed. Waksal, in his trademark baseball cap concealing a bald spot, had long been one of the unlikeliest of the macho, large-living movie and media and culture machers -- Weinstein, New Line president Bob Shea, art dealer Larry Gagosian, music lawyer Allen Grubman, concert promoter Ron Delsener ... Tellingly, the person in his family who didn't sell was probably the shrewdest financially -- his daughter Elana Waksal Posner. Married to Jarrett Posner, who works for financier Nelson Peltz, Elana, smart and aggressive, ran for City Council last year, and often counsels her father on business. Her sister, Aliza, younger and bubblier, an aspiring actress who once dated David Lauren, is the one who pulled the trigger on the sale, cashing out for about $2.5 million. Waksal's father, 83 years old, a Holocaust survivor (so is his mother), also sold on the 27th."

ImClone's Waksal Gets 7 Years in Prison,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), June 10, 2003
"Sam Waksal, the jet-setting drug-company entrepreneur at the center of the insider-trading scandal that has ensnared Martha Stewart, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison Tuesday for what a judge called his 'lawlessness and arrogance.' The ImClone Systems founder was also ordered to pay nearly $4.3 million in fines and back taxes. 'The harm that you wrought is truly incalculable,' U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley said. He said Waksal had damaged his company, his family and investors nationwide. Waksal, 55, admitted last fall that he tipped his daughter, Aliza, to dump ImClone stock in December 2001, just before it plunged on a discouraging government report about the ImClone cancer drug Erbitux. Stewart, a friend of Waksal's, also unloaded her stock ahead of the news. Waksal has not publicly implicated Stewart, who pleaded innocent last week to charges that could undermine her home-decorating empire and put her in prison ... The penalties include a $3 million fine and more than $1.2 million Waksal owes New York state for evading taxes on nine paintings he bought in 2000 and 2001 ... Waksal once rubbed shoulders with stars like Mick Jagger and cut a flamboyant figure in the pharmaceutical industry. He appeared frequently on the society pages with Stewart. According to prosecutors, he learned in advance that the Food and Drug Administration had decided not to review ImClone's application for Erbitux. The judge said Aliza Waksal saved more than $630,000 when she sold at her father's encouragement. He said Waksal tried to save more than $1 million himself by transferring his own stock to Aliza's account - a move blocked by his brokerage. Prosecutors said Stewart dumped 4,000 shares of ImClone on a tip from stockbroker Peter Bacanovic that the Waksal family was planning to sell. Bacanovic has also pleaded innocent ... [T]he judge said Waksal's crimes were 'not simply a 24-hour window of catastrophically poor judgment or a crime of impulse.' 'These crimes are emblematic of lawlessness and arrogance from your own self-described short-term cash flow needs,' Pauley said. Waksal has admitted forging a lawyer's signature on paperwork for a $44 million bank loan. He has also said he ordered staff to keep certain financial records from leaving his office, knowing the Securities and Exchange Commission would be interested in them. Prosecutors said Waksal also ordered the destruction of computer files, phone messages and other records."

Hasidic scams net jail terms. Judge says crimes showed `chutzpah',
Reuters News Service, June 14, 2003
"Two men who operated a racketeering ring in an ultra- orthodox Jewish community and cheated individuals, banks and businesses out of millions of dollars were sentenced to long prison terms Thursday. Mordechai Samet, who was convicted by a jury in a White Plains, N.Y., federal court in December, was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for operating the ring in the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, 40 miles northwest of New York City. He was also ordered to forfeit $4 million to the government. Samet's co-defendant, Chaim Hollender, received a prison term of 12 years and seven months. He was ordered to forfeit almost $2 million. 'This case is extraordinary because of the breadth and scope of the frauds committed, the period of time over which they were committed and the chutzpah of the people committing them,' U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said in sentencing the men. The men were convicted of racketeering, money laundering conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud. In addition to forfeiting millions, they were ordered to make restitution in the amount of $2.2 million. The racketeering organization, which prosecutors called the Samet group, used a variety of fictitious identities to commit an array of frauds and net $4 million by the time it was halted. According to the charges, the crimes included soliciting people for bogus lotteries, defrauding banks with counterfeit checks, submitting false death claims to insurance companies and using false information to get tax refunds. The men were also charged with cheating credit card companies by fraudulently disputing charges and claiming goods or services had not been received. Prosecutors said the duo laundered the proceeds in the United States and overseas, concealing their activities and funding additional frauds."

Driver Pleads Not Guilty To Attempted Murder Charge/ Officer Struck While Working Traffic Detail, The Boston Channel, June 24, 2003
"Police say a Weymouth woman tried to dodge a detour Tuesday morning because she was late for work but she never made it to work Tuesday. Instead, Anna Gitlin was arrested after her car hit a veteran police officer, Newscenter 5's David Boeri reported. Driver Arraigned In Court In court Tuesday, her lawyer portrayed a person with a completely unblemished record, a record of accomplishment as a student at Needham High School and in college, a Russian immigrant and a daughter of a piano teacher. But on Tuesday, she was a defendant charged with the attempted murder of a police officer. Maybe Gitlin, 25, was the day's first causality of the heat. With the poise of a Russian ballerina, the immigrant from St. Petersburg never looked to the right or to the left in the courtroom, and when she saw a policeman standing in her way Tuesday morning she allegedly never stopped. "' figured she was crazy,"'said one alleged witness. On her way to work Tuesday morning, the software engineer with no record got jammed up with the law because of a traffic jam. There had been an accident, and the road was closed. Someone had been hospitalized, but according to witnesses and police, that wasn't good enough for Gitlin. 'She was screaming at the cop because she wanted to go down there," 'ne alleged witness said. 'This defendant responded to the police officer and I quote, she yelled, 'I don't care who the f*** dies, I'm more important.' She repeated this statement again to the officer,' the prosecutor said in court."

Former Holland man indicted in $22M scam,
By GEORGE MATTAR, Bucks County Courier Times (PA), July 2, 2003
"A former Holland man was slapped with a 25-count federal indictment yesterday charging that he defrauded a bank out of $22 million. Gene Bortnick, 32, now of Hollywood, Fla., was indicted in U.S. District Court by a federal grand jury, said U.S. Attorney spokesman Rich Manieri. Bortnick owned and operated multiple corporations all doing business at 2700 Interplex Drive in Bensalem. The companies went by names such as MGL Corp., MGL Apparel and Lorianna Stores - a chain of more than 40 stores that sold finished garments bought mainly from or through Bortnick's other businesses."

JDL Activist Said Talking With FBI. Earl Krugel, awaiting sentencing in a bombing plot, is being quizzed about the 1985 Santa Ana blast that killed an Arab American,
By David Rosenzweig, Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2003
"A Jewish Defense League activist awaiting sentencing for plotting to bomb a mosque and a congressman's office has been cooperating with the FBI in its continuing investigation of the organization and a 1985 bombing that claimed the life of Arab American civil rights leader Alex Odeh, according to sources familiar with the case. Granted immunity from prosecution for any self-incriminating statements, Earl Krugel, the JDL's former West Coast coordinator, has undergone several days of questioning about a range of subjects, including the Odeh slaying, the sources said. Over the years, the FBI has investigated several onetime JDL members in connection with the slaying, but no charges have ever been filed. The JDL has denied any involvement. Odeh, western regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was killed by a bomb that went off when he opened the front door of the committee's Santa Ana office. Seven others were injured. The Justice Department has offered a $1-million reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. One source cautioned, however, that the information provided by Krugel is not likely to "crack the case open." Krugel pleaded guilty earlier this year to plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Vista), who is of Lebanese descent. Krugel was to have been sentenced this week, but the prosecution and defense jointly petitioned U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew to postpone the hearing until Aug. 11, saying additional time was needed to allow Krugel to "fulfill his obligations under his plea agreement."

HIV ASSASSIN WAS FUELED BY FEAR OF 'GAY' BLACKMAIL,
By MURRAY WEISS, and ALISHA BERGER, New York Post, July 25, 2003
"The [New York] City Hall killer was an HIV-positive man who made meticulous preparations for his own death before setting out to assassinate a political rival who he believed was blackmailing him because he was gay, law-enforcement sources said yesterday. Before meeting up with his murder target - Brooklyn Councilman James Davis - Othniel Boaz Askew, 31, laid out on a living-room table his last will and testament, along with a detailed note to a brother specifying where all his bank accounts and other valuables were, police said. Cops also found his HIV medications elsewhere in his fastidiously neat Fort Greene apartment. No suicide note was discovered, but cops searching for a motive said they were looking through the contents of Askew's laptop. Police sorted through evidence and witness testimonies yesterday and said the ambitious Askew was despondent over inability to get on the primary ballot against Davis. He also was enraged by his belief that Davis was doing everything possible to squeeze him out of the race ... [A] well-placed source told The Post Davis had done a thorough background search on Askew, found records showing he had been involved in a gay domestic dispute in 1996, then used the information to blackmail Askew into withdrawing from the race. The night before the killing, Askew had been hanging out at Charter-revision forum at the Brooklyn Public Library, where he was caught on tape by a local TV crew. Police found a stack of political posters and flyers from past Davis campaigns in Askew's apartment. While no independent toxicological studies have been released, police said they believe Askew was HIV positive. They said they found prescriptions for Paxil, Zarret and Viagra, as well as gay porn and sadomasochistic material. Investigators said Askew bought a silver 40-caliber gun with a seven-shot clip in North Carolina in May 2001, and that Askew wore the gun in his waistband on Thursday. He had seven additional bullets hidden in his left sock, and cops speculated he had planned first to empty his gun on his opponent, then to painstakingly reload it. All seven rounds were fired and every one hit Davis - two of them ripping through his body and out exit wounds. A card found in Askew's pocket read "I am not a donor. I'm Jewish," they added. Cops also found a bottle of Valium pills ... Askew claimed to be an Orthodox Jew, a Yale Law School graduate, a Gulf War veteran, a real-estate developer, and a future senator. Yale could not immediately confirm the claim, officials confirmed Askew had served in the Air Force, and there was no record of any real-estate development experience beyond work on his Brooklyn home. Neighbors in Long Island said he had been brought up as a Jehovah's Witness."

PARK AVE. SHRINK IN PILL-PU$H,
by Murray Weis, Joe McGurk and Kate Sheehy, New York Post, July 30, 2003
"A greedy Park Avenue shrink brazenly ran a "prescription mill" fueled by recovering junkies that at one point netted him a whopping $2,400 in just 22 minutes, authorities said yesterday. Dr. Ahron Friedberg, 40, raked in up to a quarter of a million dollars doling out hundreds of illegal prescriptions to recovering addicts in the cramped, revolving-door office he rented by the hour at 133 E. 73rd St., police said. The psychiatrist would use two "steerers" to lure heroin addicts from their morning treatments at two methadone clinics at Second Avenue and 24th Street to the one-room office, cops said. There, "patients" would pay Friedberg $150 cash per prescription for 90 to 100 pills, usually of the powerful anti-anxiety drug Xanax or Clonipine, a similar drug used to treat the side effects of drug withdrawal, cops said. The recovering junkies would go to a pharmacy to fill their prescriptions - then typically turn around and peddle the pills back on the street for $5 to $10 a pop. It is unclear whether the addicts also would seek Medicaid reimbursement for the pills. A disabled vet who said he was a regular at one of the methadone clinics said the "steerers' " scheme was well-known. "They say, 'Listen, you can get a prescription for any kind of drug you want,' " he said. Most of the people would "take the drugs and sell them." But Friedberg's father, a prominent psychiatrist who lives with his son in upscale Alpine, N.J., insisted his son wasn't involved. "I know the situation, and this was somebody just trying to get him to do something," said the dad, hinting cops framed his son to get the dirt on someone else. "He's a responsible young professional . . . There's nothing behind these allegations." But cops insist Friedberg - who has a posh office address at 925 Park Ave., too - was so frenzied in his bid for cash that if addicts took more than a minute or two giving him information he needed, he would demand they pay double for having wasted his time. He once saw 36 patients in 22 minutes, they said ... Cops said Friedberg turned to crime at least eight or nine months ago, apparently to help support his ailing upscale psychiatry practice."

Eight Arrests in Allou Fraud,
by Jamie Herzlich, Newsday, August 13, 2003
"Eight people connected with Allou Healthcare were arrested Tuesday after prosecutors said they faked millions of dollars in transactions at the now bankrupt company for at least a decade, and then tried to cover up the scheme by setting fire to a Brooklyn warehouse and offering a fire marshal a $100,000 bribe to call it an accident. Those arrested on fraud charges include former chairman Victor Jacobs and his three sons, Herman, Jacob and Aaron. All but Aaron held top posts at Allou. Also charged was Irvin Brown, the head of Allou's computer department. The Jacobses were charged under their legal name of Jacobowitz. Aaron is also charged, along with Jacob Fekete,39, an associate of the family, Nachman Lichter, 33, the owner of Evergreen Warehousing Inc., and Sholem Klein, 24, an employee of Lichter's company, with conspiring to bribe a New York City fire marshal. Attorneys for the defendants either could not be reached for comment or had no comment, except for Jeffrey Hoffman, counsel to Herman Jacobs. "These allegations have been put out before," he said. "When evidence comes in, it will show these allegations are incorrect." Until last year, Brentwood-based Allou ranked among Long Island's largest companies -- at least on paper. With 300 employees and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, it distributed health, beauty and pharmaceutical companies nationwide to corner pharmacies and giant chain stores like Walgreens and Wal-Mart. But the company faltered in September when a three-alarm blaze raced through a Brooklyn warehouse where Allou said it stored about $100 million of inventory. Allou said it was covered by insurance, but investigators quickly labeled the blaze suspicious and refused to pay. By April, the company had collapsed and most of its assets have since been sold. But Roslynn Mauskopf, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news conference in Brooklyn Tuesday that the corporate fraud scheme goes back at least a decade at Allou. Investigators said the Jacobses created phony invoices and inventory to make it appear the company was doing more business than it was, so that financiers would lend them more money. The federal complaint alleges the Jacobses created a financial perpetual motion machine in which funds were moved around in circles to inflate the company's inventory and accounts receivable, and thus increase its borrowing power. In practice, prosecutors said, the Jacobses sent money from Allou to entities they controlled, ostensibly to buy inventory, which could be used to secure new loans. In fact, prosecutors say, much of the inventory never existed. A portion of these funds was sent back to Allou to create the appearance that bogus invoices created by the company were getting paid off by Allou's customers, prosectutors charged. This presumably would have reassured lenders who were counting on those invoices to secure their loans. In the last 15 months of Allou's operation, the "defendants fabricated approximately $220 million in bogus sales and nearly $200 million in purchases of nonexistent inventory," according to a press release. Mauskopf said that as Allou's phony invoices and sales grew to "staggering proportions," the scheme threatened to unravel. She said the fire, "fueled by greed," was cooked up in an attempt to cover the massive corporate fraud by cashing in on a $100 million insurance policy. The three-alarm blaze in September took several hours and more than 200 firefighters to extinguish."

[ANYTHING for a buck?]
U.S. Jew among 3 nabbed in plot to smuggle missile,
By Nathan Guttman and Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz (Israel), August 14, 2003
"Three suspects, including a Jewish American, had their remand extended Wednesday after being nabbed on suspicion of attempting to smuggle a missile to Muslim terror groups operating inside the United States. British arms dealer Hemant Lakhani is suspected of heading the half a million dollar operation with two accomplices, Yehuda Avraham, a New York resident, and Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, of Malaysia, who helped to launder the missile funds. The three were captured in a sting operation mounted over the past 18 months in coordination with American, Russian and British authorities, the FBI revealed Wednesday. Yehuda Avraham received the payment for the first missile from Lakhani and transferred it to a bank account outside the U.S., and Hameed was to launder the money. The FBI's anti-terror team in New Jersey said Wednesday that the missile that was captured was the first of a larger deal, in which Lakhani was ready to provide 50 anti-aircraft SA-18 shoulder missiles. Lakhani's contact, who presented himself as close to Sudanese underground organizations, was in fact an FBI agent. The FBI started following Lakhani 18 months ago after receiving information that he was interested in buying missiles in Russia. Avraham, a diamond merchant, was arrested on Tuesday by FBI agents in his office in Manhattan's diamond bourse. Avraham and his son Gideon are the owners of Ambuy Gem Corp. Avraham, who is 75 years old according to a relative, was born in Afghanistan. He was described as an observant Jew who attends the synagogue in his Forest Hills neighborhood regularly."

'60s Radical in N.Y. Heist Gets Parole,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), August 20, 2003
"Kathy Boudin, the '60s radical who has served 22 years in prison for a 1981 armored car heist in which three men were killed, was granted parole Wednesday. Boudin, 60, a one-time member of the Weather Underground described as a model inmate in prison, had been denied parole just three months ago, as well as two years ago. Officials did not immediately explain the change of position. "Right now, she's hysterically happy," said Boudin's lawyer, Leonard Weinglass. "What I heard on the phone were screaming and crying" ... But her possible release had been staunchly opposed by the families, friends and colleagues of the three men who were killed - Nyack police Sgt. Edward O'Grady and Officer Waverly Brown, and Peter Paige, a Brink's guard. John Hanchar, a nephew of O'Grady, said Wednesday, "Today's Eddie's birthday. He would have been 55 years old, so it's especially difficult." He added: "I just hope Boudin is sincere in her claim to be a changed woman and no other family has to suffer like ours did." Boudin, daughter of civil rights attorney Leonard Boudin, became a radical activist in the 1960s. She was recruited for the Brink's robbery by Black Liberation Army members and other radicals who apparently wanted to have white people driving the getaway vehicle, a U-Haul truck, to throw off pursuers. In the robbery at the Nanuet Mall, $1.6 million was stolen and Paige was killed. The police officers were gunned down when the U-Haul truck was stopped at a roadblock and the gang burst from the back with automatic weapons firing. Boudin, who had been in the truck's passenger seat, was apprehended as she fled, pleaded guilty to felony murder and robbery and was sentenced to 20 years to life. She had told the parole board in 2001 that at the time of the robbery, she thought the money would be used "to help the black community." She said she wasn't armed and was terrified when the gun battle ensued. And she said there was no way "to pay the debt for my being involved or participating in the crime that destroyed families and destroyed men." After Boudin was denied parole at her first hearing in 2001, a judge ruled the board failed to take into account the recommendation of the sentencing judge that she be paroled after 20 years. That ruling led to the May parole hearing at which she was again turned down. Wednesday's hearing was her regularly scheduled appearance before the parole board. In May, the hearing panel had told Boudin her achievements "are clearly outweighed by the serious and brutal nature of the crimes." Wednesday's decision was announced without any explanation for the change of heart."

[One standard for Jews, another for everyone else. This is a foundation of modern western society:]
BAGHDAD BOMB BLASTED AMERICAN HUBRIS. The dream of empire is exploding in our faces,
by Justin Raimondo, antiwar.com, August 20, 2003
"Closer to home, however, the reported financier of a terrorist plot, Yehuda Abraham, was granted bail by a judge over prosecutors' objections: Abraham, a 76-year-old Orthodox Jew who lives in Queens, was arrested on a charge of financing the attempt by arms dealer Hemant Lakhani to sell surface-to-air missiles to a "Somali terrorist group" that turned out to be the FBI. The Thailand connection: Abraham and his family not only traveled to Thailand frequently, but he is listed here as a contact for the Jewish community of Bangkok. Abraham, whose bail has been set at $10 million, is expected by his defense attorney to meet the terms imposed by the judge – he must wear an electronic tracking device – and "be free this week, as one New Jersey newspaper reported: "Prosecutors acknowledged they have no proof that Abraham knew he was helping to facilitate a weapons deal for terrorists." But that could change. Law enforcement sources say agents are still going over bales of documents and computer equipment seized in the raid on Abraham's Manhattan office. Given what we know now, however, a question arises: why would someone described as "a wealthy and successful man with more than $1 million equity in his home and shops in Europe, the Middle East and Asia" engage in such a risky transaction for a paltry $1,500 commission, as the New York Times reports? Sure, Mr. Abraham is an American citizen, but Federal prosecutors are treating Abraham far differently than, say, an Islamic charity in the U.S. that may have aided and abetted the financing of terrorism directed against Israel. None of those guys got bail: they were just rounded up, closed down, and deported. Why the double-standard? Why isn't he being held, a la John Lindh and Jose Padilla, as an "enemy combatant"? More than a few interesting questions come up if we look a little closer at this case, including what's up with the lawsuit brought by a BBC journalist against Newsweek, over the latter's report that the Beeb leaked news of the arrests before the feds could go after their real quarry. There is a lot more here than meets the eye."

Student suing Wesleyan over ‘cross burning’ charge,
BY JIM HICKEY, Middletown Press, August 30, 2003
"Representatives for a Wesleyan student suspended earlier this summer for allegedly burning a cross in front of his dorm have filed a lawsuit against the university, seeking an emergency restraining order that would allow him to begin classes next week. An attorney for Robert E. Cohen, a resident of Media, Pa., filed the suit against the university earlier this week on the grounds that Cohen’s suspension was "unwarranted" and largely a rush to judgment on the part of school administrators. The suit was filed by attorney Gerard Schrom in the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Pa., and claims that Cohen merely burned a small fire near his dorm on May 14 to celebrate the end of final exams. There were no racial overtones to the act, the suit claims. Cohen had initially burned a bundle of unneeded notes and examination books, but was looking for more things to burn in order to keep the fire going. He kept running back and forth to his dorm room, and eventually grabbed some discarded wood waiting to be taken out with the trash in the hallway. The discarded wood was a part of an art project shaped in the form of a cross, and belonged to an African-American art student. The suit claims that Cohen threw the bundle of wood onto the fire in a "non-vertical manner," and was joined by a number of other students who gathered to watch the fire burn. When a campus security officer approached, the students dispersed, and Cohen managed to avoid the officer by running back into Foss 5. According to the official incident report, Cohen later jumped out of an exterior window from someone else’s down room to escape from the officer. However, security officers were able to identify Cohen by his long hair, and questioned him in his room the next day ... All the students who know Robert at Wesleyan, including the African American woman who had discarded the wood, agree there has never been any evidence of prejudice on his part." But that art student, Tia Clinton, did issue a statement to university officials that she was deeply offended by the cross burning incident. But, according to Schrom, she did not know the details of the incident at the time, and did know that Cohen had started the fire. Clinton’s statements were then incorporated into a series of e-mails that were reportedly circulated all over campus, both to students and faculty, that contained pictures taken of the burning cross. Those e-mails, Schrom claimed, slandered his client, and essentially tried and convicted Cohen in the court of public opinion even before the incident went before the Student Judicial Board. One of the e-mails was sent out by Dean Freddye Hill just one day after the burning, and says that many members of the university community had expressed outrage about the incident, and viewed it as a "terrorist threat against oppressed people."

[Slatkin, today a "Scientologist," was born and raised Jewish.]
Earthlink Co-Founder Gets 14 Years In The Slammer,
By Ben Berkowitz, rense.com (from Reuters), September 3, 2003
"Financier Reed Slatkin, a key player in the creation of Internet service provider EarthLink Inc., was sentenced on Tuesday to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. A federal court in Los Angeles also ordered Slatkin to pay more than $240 million in restitution to clients of his fund management business. The government had asked that he be sentenced to the minimum in a range from 11 years and three months to 14 years after defrauding investors of nearly $600 million, but Judge Margaret Morrow chose the more severe option. "The scope of the illegal activities was immense," she told a courtroom packed with attorneys and victims of Slatkin. "The havoc that the defendant has wreaked is immense, the loss is immeasurable." The court heard arguments from Slatkin's lawyers pleading mitigating circumstances that they said should factor in a reduction in his sentence, including his cooperation with prosecutors and the resulting indictments they have gotten against Slatkin associates. They asked the judge to impose a sentence of 6 1/2 years, which they said was fair considering the circumstances. Appearing in prison garb with manacles around his hands and waist, Slatkin asked the court for leniency, with his lawyers saying that he had been under psychological pressure ... Slatkin pleaded guilty in 2002 to 15 counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Slatkin, who had a number of celebrity and high-profile clients, had portrayed himself as a shrewd manager whose investments were outstripping the market, but prosecutors said he was actually running a Ponzi scheme ... His attorneys blamed much of his behavior on the influence of the Church of Scientology, of which he was a member and from where many of his victims came."

HOTEL CHEAT GETS ROOM IN PRISON,
By JOHN LEHMANN, New York Post, September 6, 2003
"A wealthy hotel magnate will soon be checking in to federal prison for up to 3 1/2 years after he owned up yesterday to his role in a staggering $32 million tax swindle. Brett Tollman, whose multimillionaire father went on the lam last year after being charged as part of the scam, admitted in Manhattan federal court that he dodged $3.5 million in taxes while running his father's hotel chain. Along with their business partners, the Tollmans once owned 50 Days Inn hotels across America, lived in lavish homes and drove around in luxury cars, the feds said. Tollman, 42, who lives on Park Avenue and is now working as chief executive of his mom's Red Carnation hotel chain, cut a plea deal with the feds after initially maintaining his innocence when arrested last November. His father, Stanley Tollman, a high-society fixture, was first arrested in spring of last year on charges he helped defraud banks of more than $42 million by hiding assets and lying about his ability to pay bills. The 72-year-old was later charged along with his son on tax evasion charges totaling more than $32 million. Prosecutors believe he fled to England."

KID-SLAY TV STAR,
By DAREH GREGORIAN, New York Post, September 23, 2003
"BEAST TO GO FREE ... Infamous child killer Joel Steinberg is getting ready for his close-up - he has a TV job waiting for him when he gets out of prison. Steinberg, the abusive monster who became the city's most hated man, will go to work as a reporter and field producer for a new leased-access cable show called "New York Confidential" when he's released next year, his lawyer said yesterday. "He needs a job. He has to do something when he gets out," said the lawyer, Darnay Hoffman. He described the job as essentially "a paid internship. He's going to be treated no differently than someone just out of college." Steinberg, 62, is currently serving an 81/3-to- 25-year manslaughter sentence for the killing of his illegally adopted daughter, Lisa, 6. He's expected to be released in June, when he'll have served two-thirds of his sentence. "New York Confidential" spokesman James Edstrom said Steinberg, a disbarred lawyer, is "good at asking questions . . . He'll work out in the field, writing, producing, doing interviews and getting stories." Edstrom described the show, which debuts next week on Time Warner Cable's Channel 35, as "scandalous people reporting on scandalous stories." The first episode features Hoffman's wife, former "Mayflower Madam" Sydney Biddle Barrows. Barrows, whose ancestors came to the United States on the Mayflower, was busted for running a prostitution ring in the 1980s. Another episode will feature subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz. "We're going to do stories the mainstream media doesn't want to do or isn't comfortable doing," Edstrom said. Wayne Schaefer, the lawyer for Lisa's natural mother, Michele Launders, who's currently awaiting a decision on how much money Steinberg must pay her in her wrongful-death suit, was surprised by Steinberg's new gig. "That someone might conclude that Joel Steinberg possesses even a modicum of the integrity and objectivity required to function as a journalist is truly bizarre," he said. Launders was 19 in 1981, when she paid Steinberg $500 to place her newborn daughter in a good home. Instead, Steinberg took the baby home as a present for his live-in girlfriend, Hedda Nussbaum. Over the years Steinberg viciously beat Nussbaum, and allegedly beat Lisa as well. One night in their West Village apartment in 1987, Steinberg hit Lisa and knocked her head against a wall, because, Nussbaum said, she'd "been staring at him." He then went out for the night, while Nussbaum stayed in with the fatally injured youngster. The couple didn't bother to call 911 for 10 hours. Lisa died after spending three days in a coma. Charges against Nussbaum were dropped after she testified against Steinberg."

CITY KILLS BIG-BUCKS SHELTER'S TAX BREAK,
By TOM TOPOUSIS, New York Post, September 29, 2003
"The city has yanked a $52,716 annual tax break awarded to a Brooklyn developer to build affordable housing after officials learned the project was turned into a lucrative homeless shelter, The Post has learned. The property-tax break for 65 Clermont Ave. was first reported in The Post in June after a series of articles on privately operated homeless shelters that are reaping a windfall from the city to provide emergency housing. Owners of the six-story building had been forgiven all but $707.20 of their $53,420 yearly property-tax bill because the plans submitted to the city were for the construction of 12 desperately needed affordable apartments. But when the building opened a year ago, neighbors were shocked to find that it was a 24-unit shelter for homeless families - earning a whopping $70,000 a month in emergency housing payments. State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), already furious about the siting of a shelter in the community, said it was about time the tax break was pulled. "I don't believe that would have happened hadn't we made a stink about it," he said. Lentol said he's asked Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to investigate whether the developer knowingly filed a "false instrument" in order to receive tax breaks he wasn't eligible for. City records list Reuven Wolf and his realty firm, the Wolf Group, as the property developer. It's managed by David Somerstein, who operates more than a dozen shelters and nearly 500 scatter-site apartments used to house homeless families. Attempts to reach Wolf were unsuccessful. Somerstein has not returned The Post's calls. HPD gave the owners 90 days to respond to a letter calling for the revocation of the tax breaks. The owners did not respond to the agency's letter, which was dated June 3, just a day after the story was reported. Since the shelter opened in October of last year, the city's Department of Homeless Services has been paying Somerstein $97 a night for each family housed in the 24-room facility."

Records show... a phone connection,
by Gar Joseph, Philadelphia Daily News, September 30, 2003
"DID YOU GET your copy of Michael Youngblood's telephone bills yet? Youngblood is an ex-con who's pals with Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz. Someone is dropping copies of 'Blood's bills on the news media. Channel 6's Dann Cuellar got one. City Paper's Howard Altman got one. WHAT's Mary Mason got one. Yesterday we got one. The thrust is that Youngblood and Katz talk on their cell phones. So far the media hasn't done much with this - probably because the document delivery is quickly followed by a phone call from the office of noted libel lawyer Richard Sprague, who represents Youngblood. A nice fellow from Sprague's office named Joe Podraza called us to say that we were in receipt of stolen property. If we print the phone records, we could "have some problems." Furthermore, being in possession of stolen property, we should present our copies to him. Oh, and the postal inspector and the U.S. attorney's office have been contacted. Is the release of these records coincidental? Earlier this month, Milton Street accused Youngblood of masterminding the alleged Molotov cocktail incident at a Katz campaign office in North Philly last month. Street, brother of Mayor Street, said Youngblood had been behind the bombing attempt, knowing Street partisans would be blamed. Milton Street offered no evidence then, saying, "At the appropriate time I will prove it." Youngblood called the accusation false and outrageous. Police have found no solid evidence there even was a Molotov cocktail or who might have been involved. We couldn't reach Milton Street yesterday. The phone records, delivered anonymously, don't prove anything other than that Youngblood and Katz talk. We should note here that Youngblood talks with everybody, politicians and the news media alike. "He's a friend of mine," says Katz. "I've been friendly to him and with him for a long time, before he had his trouble and after he had his trouble." Youngblood's "trouble" involved a 1999 conviction on extortion, bank fraud and tax evasion in connection with his job overseeing construction on a city-funded, church-sponsored, $2 million homeless shelter. Before that, Youngblood, 46, an ex-boxer and ex-drug dealer, was an aide to City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. After a scuffle with SEPTA cops, then-Council President John Street fired him for failing to disclose his criminal past."

Prison for Medicare fraud pair,
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, October 11, 2003
"U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein sentenced a Bellevue man yesterday to 46 months in federal prison for fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for more than $200,000 in durable medical supplies such as expensive braces and orthopedic devices. Eduard Abramov, 47, and accomplice Galina Tokarenko, 50, concocted a scheme in which they recruited elderly Russian-speaking people by offering them gifts such as water filters, blenders and blankets to obtain prescriptions from doctors for medical equipment. Abramov then billed Medicare and Medicaid for the equipment without giving the patients all the supplies."

Prisoner 'admits murder,'
by Mark Scodie, Jewish Chronicle (UK, paper copy), October 10, 2003, p. 6
"Welsh police have confirmed their view that a man being held in an Israeli jail is responsible for a murder in Cardoff 40 years ago ... The man fled to Israel after the murder, spending time on a kibbutz. He married and had chilldren, but is now serving an 11-year sentence for manslaughter, having killed a male business associate in the early 1990s. He had earlier shot his wife dead, but convinced the court that it had been an accident. "

Parents Of Deceased Teen Pranksters Speak Out. Man Who Fired Fatal Shot Said He Thought Boy Was Armed Robber,
Click 10 (Florida), October 31, 2003
"Parents of a Boca teenager, who was killed earlier this week when he pulled a prank, spoke to the media today about their loss. Police say Mark Drewes, 16, and a friend went knocking on neighbors' doors last weekend in Boca Raton and then ran away. One of the neighbors, Jay Levin apparently thought Drewes was an armed robber and shot him. It's a claim Drewes' parents have a hard time believing. "First of all, I know my son didn't have anything (in) his hands," said the boy's mother, Luciana Drewes. "He had nothing in his hands no. He's never touched a gun in his life. He's never seen one," said the boy's father, Gregory Drewes. "I believe (Levin) burst out the door and was going to shoot whoever was there." Levin has not been arrested."

Diner arrested in fight over deaf woman's dog. A Tamarac woman is arrested after police say she punched a 71-year-old deaf woman over the woman's hearing dog being in a restaurant,
BY ASHLEY FANTZ, Miami Herald, November 4, 2003
"A woman dining with her elderly mother at a Tamarac buffet was in jail Monday after punching a 71-year-old deaf woman, angered because the woman had brought her hearing dog into the restaurant, police said. The Broward Sheriff's Office charged Jeanne Shapiro, 49, of Fairfax Drive in Tamarac with battery on a person over the age of 65 on Sunday evening. According to BSO, Shapiro used a closed fist to hit Jean Costanza Sala, 71, of Sunrise, outside the New York Italian Buffet, 5879 N. University Dr. Bail was set at $5,000. Sala was punched in the mouth, causing her lip to bleed, deputies said. She was treated at the scene by Tamarac Fire Rescue. Her dog, Misty, was not injured. Restaurant owner Michael Delgardio said he heard the women arguing. Shapiro was eating with her mother, who uses a wheelchair, when Sala walked in with her son and hearing dog, a brown-and-white sheltie, he said. Hearing dogs alert profoundly deaf people to alarms and other noises. The BSO news release said Shapiro became ''very irate'' about the dog being allowed in the restaurant. '[Shapiro] started yelling, `Get that dog out of here! It's turning my stomach!' '' recalled Delgardio, who tried to explain to her that the dog was allowed in the restaurant under laws that protect the rights of the disabled. ``[Shapiro] grabbed her mother in the wheelchair and headed for the door, yelling about she wasn't going to pay for her or her mother's meal.'' Then, Delgardio said, customers began to chase Shapiro into a neighboring Publix parking lot in an attempt to make her pay her bill. Sala and her son joined the shouting crowd. ''In the beginning, I really thought it would calm down when [Shapiro] left. I didn't think these two women would end up slugging it out,'' he said. ``They [Sala and Shapiro] were just screaming at each other and coming closer to each other's faces.'' According to the BSO news release, ``Sala tried to explain to Shapiro that she relied on her dog because she was deaf. Unprovoked, Shapiro punched the 71-year-old woman in the mouth with a closed fist.'' 'I touched my mouth and said, `Oh my God, I'm bleeding,' '' Sala told WFOR-CBS 4. Delgardio said he tried to settle Shapiro's $22 bill for $10, but she cursed at him and threw a $10 bill on the ground."

[Durst: Heir to one of the wealthy Jewish real estate dynasties in New York:]
Millionaire Durst Cleared in Texas Death, The cross-dressing son of a New York City real estate tycoon was accused of murder for killing a neighbor at a low-rent Galveston apartment house where they both lived, then dismembering the victim and throwing the body parts into Galveston Bay,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), November 11,2 003
"New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who said he accidentally killed a hotheaded neighbor in self-defense and then chopped up the body because he feared no one would believe him, was found innocent Tuesday of murder. The jury took five days to reach the verdict, bringing a startling end to a grisly case that began to unfold when trash bags containing pieces of 71-year-old Morris Black started washing up along Galveston Bay in 2001. Durst appeared stunned when he heard the verdict, his mouth hanging slightly open and his eyes filling with tears. The 60-year-old millionaire hugged his attorneys, saying: "Thank you so much." Durst, who has been estranged from his family since the early 1990s, remains under suspicion in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife and the 2000 shooting death of her friend Susan Berman, a Los Angeles writer who was set to be questioned about the missing woman. He has not been charged in either case. Prosecutor Kurt Sistrunk said he was dismayed and disappointed with the verdict. If he had been convicted, Durst could have gotten five to 99 years in prison. Durst met Black after moving from New York to Galveston, where the millionaire initially posed as a mute woman to escape attention in the two other deaths. He later dropped the masquerade and became friends with Black, who lived across the hall from him in a low-rent apartment building. Durst's attorneys said the friendship soured because of the elderly man's increasingly belligerent behavior. Durst and other witnesses testified Black often flew into rages and got into fights. During nearly four days on the stand, Durst testified that he found Black in his apartment on Sept. 28, 2001, and that Black had Durst's gun. During a struggle, the gun went off, hitting Black in the face, he said. Durst testified that he panicked and feared police would not believe his story, so he used two saws and an ax to cut up the body and threw the pieces into Galveston Bay. The victim's head has never been found. He said he could not recall details about dismembering the body, but when pressed by a prosecutor, he said it was "a nightmare with blood everywhere." Prosecutors called Durst a cold-blooded killer who shot Black to steal his identity. They said the proof was how he meticulously covered up the crime by cutting up the body, cleaning the crime scene, fleeing Galveston and then returning to retrieve the head because it could identify his victim. "Is it well-planned and calculated? You bet it is," Sistrunk said. In a risky, all-or-nothing strategy by the defense, the jury was allowed to consider only murder, not lesser charges such as manslaughter. Durst still faces a bail-jumping count, which could bring up to 10 years in prison ... Durst is the son of the late Seymour Durst, patriarch of the Durst Organization, a billion-dollar real estate company that owns several New York skyscrapers. The company declined to comment on the verdict. Durst had moved to Galveston disguised as a woman after a New York investigation was reopened into the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen."

[We eagerly await the names of those arrested.]
Dozens Arrested in Currency Trade Raids,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), November 18, 2003
"Federal law enforcement officers began arresting several dozen Wall Street traders on Tuesday suspected of foreign currency exchange crimes in a crackdown on a largely unregulated financial market, sources said. Speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, two government sources confirmed that raids were aimed at arresting people named in court papers filed under seal in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. One source said the crimes were committed as investors were cheated by individuals who claimed to be making foreign exchange trades when they were not. The trades were worth millions of dollars, the sources said. FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette declined to comment, as did Michael Kulstad, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney James B. Comey. The alleged crimes could be carried out virtually anywhere because the foreign exchange market is a largely unregulated one, one of the sources said. At least 10 arrests were made during a raid at a downtown Manhattan office building, although other arrests were expected in other East Coast cities, one source said. The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site late Tuesday that FBI agents arrested seven employees at Madison Deane and Associates in Manhattan and three employees at ICAP PLC in Jersey City, N.J. Executives of the firms declined comment or were not available, the newspaper said. The newspaper and cable network CNBC reported that 47 people were targeted in the probe."

[O. J. Simpson's former lawyer Robert Shapiro now has fellow Jew Phil Spector under his wing. All the "scientific experts" (and the usual $500 million dollars) will spring him.]
Producer Phil Spector Charged With Murder,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), November 20, 2003
"Record producer Phil Spector, the 1960s recording-studio wizard who created pop music's Wall of Sound, was charged Thursday with murder in the shooting death of a woman at his home last February. Spector, 63, pleaded innocent at an arraignment Thursday afternoon in the slaying of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson, a B-movie actress and model found dead in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion. Spector waived his right to a speedy trial. The judge set a Jan. 23 hearing to choose a date for a preliminary hearing to determine whether the case should go to trial. Spector, his hair falling to his shoulders in curls, wore a long black coat and platform shoes with 3-inch heels. He refused comment outside court. He has been free on $1 million bail since his arrest for investigation of murder shortly after the shooting Feb. 3. Authorities have not given a motive or commented on other details of the investigation. The felony complaint did not specify whether prosecutors will seek a first-degree or second-degree murder conviction. District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison with a possibility of parole. The development created the unusual scene of two major music artists facing criminal proceedings in the same day. As the charges against Spector were announced, hundreds of reporters were waiting in Santa Barbara County for Michael Jackson to surrender in a case involving child molestation. Spector's attorney Robert Shapiro refused to talk about the case at the courthouse but predicted in a statement that Spector would prevail in the case. "We have assembled a team of scientific experts which is among the most respected and prestigious in the world," said Shapiro, who was part of O.J. Simpson's legal team during his murder trial. "Based on this team's findings of this horrible human event, any jury will conclude that Phil Spector is not guilty." Spector has denied he killed Clarkson, suggesting in an Esquire magazine interview that she may have shot herself. After more than six months of investigation, authorities concluded Spector shot her. Spector is famous for creating the Wall of Sound that involved overdubbing of multiple instruments, vocals and sound effects create a full, dramatic effect. The technique changed the way pop records were produced while bringing fame to groups like the Ronettes and the Crystals. Among the hits bearing his signature style are "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals; "Walking in the Rain" by the Ronettes and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers. He also worked with Elvis Presley and Ike and Tina Turner, produced the last Beatles album, "Let It Be," in 1970, worked with John Lennon on "Imagine," and helped Yoko Ono produce Lennon's work after he was killed in 1980. But there apparently was a dark side to Spector's genius, with stories of drunken rages, violence against a former wife, and a penchant for brandishing firearms. Spector's last major album was a 1980s collaboration with the Ramones, "End of the Century." During the session, the late bassist Dee Dee Ramone said Spector pulled a gun on the band."

Dog owners say Wilton Manors groomer mistreated their pets,
By Daniella Aird, Sun-Sentinel, November 17, 2003
"Three pet owners say their animals have been abused at a Wilton Manors grooming salon called Happy Pawz. The Wilton Manors Police Department is investigating the shop after receiving complaints from customers that the owner, Mark Goldstein, mistreated animals. Police confirmed receiving two complaints against Goldstein, but would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation. Happy Pawz was operating until the end of October, but a new shop called Grooming Greg's has since opened at the same address, 2225 Wilton Drive. Brian Butler says he brought his 16-year-old poodle Spike to the shop last month for a haircut, and the next day his dog was dead from broken ribs and internal bruising. "This is inexcusable, unforgivable," said Butler, a Wilton Manors resident who said he has filed a police report. "I brought my dog there for a nice bubble bath and haircut ... Spike didn't deserve to die like that." Goldstein declined to comment, but his attorney, James Benjamin, said he was aware of only one complaint, concerning Spike. "To my understanding, there was a 15-year-old dog that left my client's place of business and passed away after that," Benjamin said ... Other pet owners say their animals have either died or been mistreated in Goldstein's care. Fort Lauderdale resident Carol Semus said that when she went to the salon in September to pick up her cat, Panda Bear, a black-and-white Persian, she found her feline howling in pain ... Chester Therrien, of Fort Lauderdale, says he recently walked into Happy Pawz and saw Snowball, his $1,000 Himalayan cat, lying dead on the table. Therrien said when he and his daughter, Michelle Longway, asked Goldstein for an explanation, they were told Snowball, 2, had died of a heart attack. "I was like, `Excuse me?' said Longway, who said she saw her father cry for the first time. "I couldn't believe my eyes. The cat looked like it had drowned. His mouth was all purple." They too said they filed a police report."

[JTR contributor's comments: "Note the forged letters from "St. Barnabas Hospital" in the wily attempt to add Christian credibility to the fraudulent invoices."]
AMBULANCE EXEC SCAMMED MEDICARE FOR $34M: FEDS,
By DAVID SEIFMAN, New York Post, November 29, 2003
"The top official of an ambulance company that supplies 10 percent of the vehicles in the 911 system participated in a scheme that defrauded Medicare of $34 million, according to federal authorities. A civil suit filed by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf says three companies run by Steve Zakheim, chief operating officer of MetroCare Ambulance, received millions of dollars from Medicare in the 1990s for transports that didn't qualify for reimbursement. When auditors asked for the money back, the companies - at Zakheim's direction - obtained documents from hospitals attesting to the medical necessity of the claims. "Many of these documents were fabricated," the Oct. 30 lawsuit alleged. One of the ambulance Companies, Metro North, "submitted approximately 143 fabricated letters on St. Barnabas Hospital letterhead that were not signed at all," authorities charged. Other letters had signatures from other hospitals and nursing homes - which were forged, the lawsuit said."

[Hmmm. It's not kosher to say "Jew," but "Russians' can be smeared with impunity. Curiously, New York City's Brighton Beach is a well-known Jewish Russian enclave, and, for that matter, it's the base of the "Russian" mafia in the United States. Any relationship to this article?]
CRASH-FOR-CASH CON,
By JOHN LEHMANN, New York Post, December 1, 2003
"BOGUS BUMP: Feds say Sergey Birkin would stage fender benders and send "victims" to fraud docs like Josef Sherman. Forget about the mob - the big money in New York's criminal underworld is going to Russian fraudsters who've turned auto-insurance scams into a $500 million monopoly. FBI agents Kevin O'Grady and Jack Campanella revealed to The Post the results of a three-year undercover investigation that smashed eight Russian fraud rings in New York City. The probe, dubbed Operation Allcons, found: * Russian kingpins recruited cocaine-crazed drivers for as little as $200 to deliberately smash into hundreds of innocent motorists on busy roads like the FDR Drive. * As many as 1,000 medical clinics - some operated by Soviet-trained doctors - were set up to treat the fake injuries of people paid to ride with the crash-happy drivers. * Russian and Italian mobsters forced the "passengers" to attend the clinics for treatment they didn't need - including chiropractic and dental work and psychotherapy - for up to four months, to maximize the insurance payouts. * One Russian-run law firm, at 333 Avenue X in Brooklyn's Gravesend section, signed up 3,000 clients from staged crashes - enough to generate a potential insurance windfall of $30 million. "Many of the key players grew up under totalitarian regimes, and to survive, you had to manipulate the system," O'Grady said. "They've used that background to manipulate American systems, like banking and insurance." Combined with a massive Long Island-based scam uncovered by Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota, insurance experts say Russian-run auto-insurance fraud has cost insurance companies as much as $500 million. National Insurance Crime Bureau area director Michael Fella said Russian immigrants have invented a criminal enterprise that turns the no-fault insurance system into a "giant cash cow." "This far exceeds the sophistication of every other ethnic crime group out there," Fella said. "The proliferation of it is enormous - it's out of control." One kingpin, Ukrainian-born Sergey Birkin, who is now a fugitive, was heard on an FBI wire telling the recruited "passengers" the importance of making themselves bleed so police think the accidents are genuine."

Alamance Independent,
by Matt Maggio, Alamance Independent
"Recently, South Florida has been plagued by a large number of non-franchise moving companies owned by Israelis - many of which, along with those running them, were indicted on extortion and fraud charges for shaking down homeowners by holding their furniture and other household goods hostage for huge amounts in extra payments. To no surprise, sources in the American moving industry reported similar problems in their areas with other Israelis who had gone into the moving business. While apparently no other area has had the prosecutions of such movers that recently began in South Florida, last Thursday several owners and top managers of Century Express Van Lines - plus the moving line itself - pled guilty in just such a case. Owners Boris Gavergun and Jenny Shenaider pled guilty - as did their employees Gaston Saleme, Avishag Simon, Eliyahu Shimonov, and Atalya Simon. All pled guilty to fraud, extortion, false-bill-of-lading, and conspiracy charges. What that was legalese for was the common scam by such movers - lowball estimates, then fraudulently inflating the price and holding the homeowner's stuff hostage in warehouses that weren't even disclosed to the homeowner. Getting homeowners to sign blank bills of lading was a common part of the scam - as was ignoring customers' repeated complaints about their hostage goods or warehousing them plus threatening to auction them if not paid extra money fast. In the three years it lasted, Century Express scammed customers out of a million dollars in fraudulent bills. 15 other moving lines run by Israelis in the area are also charged."

Two link rabbi to jails scheme,
By ROBERT GEARTY, New York Daily News, December 23, 2003
"A prominent Brooklyn rabbi has been implicated in a bribery scandal for allegedly helping to get inmates moved to country club prison camps from medium-security federal prisons, the Daily News has learned. Two people who pleaded guilty in the bribery scam have told authorities that a rabbi was heavily involved; one said the rabbi "takes the money and he pays it to those who need to be paid." Law enforcement sources said that rabbi is Milton Balkany, 57, director of the Bais Yaakov girls school in Borough Park. Balkany, known as the Brooklyn Bundler for his ability to raise campaign funds for politicians - mostly Republicans - already is facing charges for allegedly misusing $700,000 in federal funds earmarked for disabled kids at his school. The rabbi has proclaimed his innocence on those charges, adding yesterday that he also is innocent of bribery allegations. "Not 10 cents, not even a box of toothpicks," has been given to any prison official, Balkany said. "It has never happened without exception, and I say that in the strongest truth." Alexander Zakharov, 44, a former Brooklyn livery cab driver currently of Seminole, Fla., and Sam Kaplun, 61, of Hallandale, Fla., formerly of Staten Island, were arrested in 2001 and immediately began cooperating. When he pleaded guilty two months ago, Zakharov said: "The money was to be given to [the] rabbi. They told me that the money was then supposed to be given to federal government officials." Kaplun pleaded guilty Nov. 24. A spokesman for Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley said the investigation was continuing. No prison officials have been charged. The FBI first heard about the bribery allegations in March 2001 after Kaplun's son Vadim, imprisoned for manipulating penny stocks, met a Russian mobster doing time for extortion at Otisville federal prison in upstate New York. The Russian mobster told FBI agents that Vadim Kaplun claimed he had a contact in the Bureau of Prisons who could arrange transfers to prison camps. Vadim Kaplun gave the mobster Zakharov's cell phone number. During the spring and summer of 2001, a Russian-speaking undercover cop then talked with Zakharov about a transfer for the Russian mobster. In court papers, Zakharov was quoted as saying that he reported to "a rabbi who had done this kind of thing for other inmates." At a meeting at a Brooklyn gas station, the undercover paid Zakharov $5,000 in partial payment for the transfer. At another meeting, Zakharov told the undercover he could pay part of the $10,000 balance with a certified check made payable to an organization connected to the rabbi."

Judge OKs Tentative Deal With Fastow Wife,
Yahoo! News, January 8, 2004
"A federal judge tentatively accepted a plea agreement Thursday for the wife of former Enron Corp. finance chief Andrew S. Fastow, a move that could lead to a plea from Fastow and possibly his cooperation in the investigation of other top executives in the energy giant's collapse. Under the deal, Lea Fastow, a former assistant treasurer at Enron, would go to prison for five months - a fraction of the term her husband faces but one that would not be made to overlap with his, so their children would have a parent at home. U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner said he had "preliminary concerns" and wanted a pre-sentencing investigation to determine if the sentence was appropriate before finalizing it. Sources close to the case said Andrew Fastow, a central figure in what prosecutors say was a web of schemes to falsely inflate Enron's profits and hide debt, was negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors that could send him to prison for 10 years and force him to pay $20 million ... Andrew Fastow would be the highest-ranking executive to plead guilty in the criminal investigation of Enron. The company's collapse into bankruptcy in 2001 was the first in a series of scandals that rattled corporate America and shook investors' confidence in the stock market. He allegedly masterminded a complex web of partnerships that hid Enron's deteriorating finances and allowed him to skim millions of dollars for himself, his family and selected friends and colleagues. Prosecutors say he reaped an estimated $30 million from the web of partnerships he set up. Fastow, 42, is charged with fraud, money laundering, insider trading and other charges. He is free on $5 million bond pending trial scheduled for April. If convicted, the maximum penalties for the charges against him include 20 years in prison for money laundering, 10 years for securities fraud and five years each on the mail fraud and conspiracy charges."

Fastows pulled a fast one Commentary: Enron swindlers deserve harder time,
By Chris Pummer, CBS MarketWatch, Jan. 15, 2004
"The rich aren't like you and me, especially when it comes to punishments befitting their crimes, as Andy and Lea Fastow proved once again. The Fastows pulled a fast one on all of us with a PR coup that made Arnold Schwarzenegger's hesitancy to run for governor seem like sincere soul-searching. Schwarzenegger, you may recall, held off announcing his candidacy to consider his wife's wishes, an ingenious male-sensitivity ploy designed to endear the alleged groper to female voters. The Fastows played the loving parent card in engineering a plea bargain that keeps them from serving their brokered sentences simultaneously so their kids will never be "parentless." That tactic engendered spin-controlled sympathy for a couple that reaped millions defrauding thousands of small investors and faithful Enron 401(k) participants. If you don't think the Fastows have powerful interests in their corner, why did the original plea agreement struck by the Bush Justice Department but spurned by the presiding judge emerge Wednesday with the sentencing provisions the Fastows' lawyers sought? Justice's scales out of balance There's something wrong with a justice system that tries 12-year-olds and the severely mentally retarded for murder, and sends a third-strike offender to prison for life for shoplifting videotapes, but lets a pair of Houston aristocrats off on their terms. If ignorance of the law is no excuse, a keen knowledge of the law should make sinister attempts to violate it punishable by something approaching the maximum sentence, even for those like Andy Fastow who agree to testify against others. Not so for extremely wealthy and highly educated Andy and Lea. Consider for a moment loving-mother Lea. Heiress to a supermarket chain fortune, she earned an MBA from Northwestern's prestigious Kellogg School of Management, was an Enron assistant treasurer, and blew $20 million on dubious art purchases for corporate headquarters in the year before the company collapsed. This was no duped corporate wife. Lea copped to a single count of falsifying tax returns, but also had been charged with conspiracy for helping her husband make a partnership seem a separate entity from Enron so the company could reap tax breaks. And then there's Andy, the consummate kiss-up artist as Enron's chief financial officer who named his first-born son after his CEO, and who treated subordinates like less than topsoil. His intricate subterfuge to hide Enron's massive debt loads from investors was so sophisticated, the father of all investing schemes, Charles Ponzi, would have knelt and declared "I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy." Yet Andy got away with pleading to just two of 98 counts of insider trading, fraud, money laundering, tax violations and other charges for fashioning an intricate web of partnerships that he used to steer millions of dollars to his family, friends and colleagues. The crimes that the onetime pillars of Houston society committed are evermore reprehensible because they believed they were so smart and privileged they could get away with them. The real question is why it's taken three years to win these plea agreements from the Fastows. Given how slowly the wheels of justice have turned on one of the worst corporate crimes in U.S. history, the delay seems calculated."

Hunt on for murder suspect,
By GEORGE MATTAR, Bucks County Courier Times, January 16, 2004
"Two dead parents, a suicide note they left behind, and a wife who grudgingly told all kicked off an international manhunt for the woman's husband in the stabbing death of an Upper Southampton mortgage processor. Paul Eduardovich Goldman, 38, is somewhere in Europe, Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons said yesterday. His wife, Irina Sapiro, 41, of Mt. Laurel, N.J., is being held in the county prison on $1 million cash bail on charges of hindering apprehension or prosecution. And Goldman's parents are dead - a tragedy that might have been prevented, officials said. "We allege Sapiro knew her in-laws were going to take their own lives because they were so ashamed of what their son had told them. He told his father he had killed [Fay] Zonis,'' Gibbons said. "It is unbelievable that [Sapiro] knew of this and did not come forward.'' Gibbons said that Goldman's parents - Edward Goldman, 66, and Inessa Lemashova, 63, of Bensalem - gave their daughter-in-law a suicide note detailing their plans written in Russian. Sapiro did nothing with it, Gibbons said, until after their bodies were found. Paul Goldman killed Zonis because she apparently was threatening to break off their 10-year extramarital affair, investigators said yesterday at a press conference in Doylestown. The body of Zonis, 42, was found at about 8:55 p.m. Dec. 29 inside Lighthouse Realty Funding LLC, 542 Street Road, Upper Southampton. She had been stabbed 10 times. Zonis was cut so viciously that the handle of the murder weapon, a paring knife, broke, Gibbons said. The broken black plastic pieces of the handle, but not the knife, were found inside the office where Zonis worked, the district attorney said. Her nose was broken and her teeth displaced because she was punched so hard. Zonis also was stabbed in both sides of her chest - after she was already dead, according to forensic pathologist Dr. Ian Hood."

Def Jam, Lyor Cohen Guilty Of Fraud; Ja Rule Fights Patrick 'Dirty Dancing' Swayze,
MTV.com, March 25, 2003
"Irv Gotti's business partners finished their latest round of fighting Friday in a New York federal court. Music label Island/Def Jam and company CEO Lyor Cohen were found liable for fraud, willful copyright infringement and wrongful interference with a contract in a $30 million lawsuit filed against them by TVT Records. At the eye of the storm were claims TVT had made, saying that Cohen tried to hinder the production and release of an album by Ja Rule's group, the Cash Money Click (a.k.a. CMC). "The verdict against Mr. Cohen, personally, for fraud shows that there are some very serious problems confronting Def Jam and Universal Music Group," said Peter Haviland, a trial lawyer for TVT Records. A spokesperson for Def Jam said the label had no comment. CMC, which also includes Murder Inc. members 0-1 and Chris Black, put two singles out on TVT in the mid-'90s, but plans for an album were halted after Black went to prison. TVT's attorney said the label amicably agreed to release Ja Rule in 1998, when Gotti went on to form Murder Inc. at Def Jam."

Israeli Not Allowed Out in Nuclear Detonator Case,
By Robert Boczkiewicz, Reuters, January 15, 2004
"An Israeli citizen accused of illegally conspiring to send 200 U.S.-made nuclear weapons detonators to Pakistan was ordered on Thursday to remain in custody while a Washington D.C. judge takes over his case and decides whether he can be freed on bail. Asher Karni, 50, was arrested on Jan. 1 at Denver International Airport after he arrived for a ski vacation on charges being made by federal prosecutors in Washington. On Monday, Denver U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Watanabe ordered him freed on a $75,000 bail provided he remained at a rabbi's home in Maryland while his case proceeds in Washington ... Federal prosecutors want Karni, who lives in South Africa, to remain in custody because they consider him a flight risk. Prosecutors said there was "undisputed proof that Karni, using an American broker, acquired nuclear triggering devices from their manufacturer in Massachusetts, after falsely representing that they were destined for a hospital in South Africa." The device, a spark gap that can send a synchronized electronic pulse to detonate a nuclear weapon, is also used by hospitals to destroy kidney stones. "Instead, after the goods arrived in South Africa, Karni re-exported them to Pakistan. By structuring the transaction in this manner he avoided the requirement of obtaining an export license for the products," the motion said."

[Conrad Black isn't Jewish, but the Number 2 man at Hollinger International David Radler is, as is Black's wife Baraba Amiel (an extremely active champion of Israel) and numerous others in his entourage.]
Accused of pillaging £118m, removed from head of his media empire - is Conrad Black facing his Moscow retreat?,
By Cahal Milmo and Ian Burrell, The Independent (UK), January 19, 2004
"The e-mail was a central part of a writ issued in the District Court of Southern New York on Saturday night by Hollinger International - the Canadian-listed owner of a global stable of newspaper titles ranging from The Jerusalem Post to The Daily Telegraph - against its largest shareholder, Lord [Conrad] Black, 59, friend of the powerful, abrasive commentator on global affairs, and, now, "Defendant Black", in a case of alleged corporate pillage amounting to more than $200m (£118m). The writ was issued with a simultaneous statement announcing that the peer, the son of a wealthy Canadian brewing executive, had also been summarily removed from his position as non-executive chairman of Hollinger International, thus removing him from any control of the trans-continental newspaper group that he has built over 20 years. The peer is also the subject of an internal investigation overseen by America's financial watchdog, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that could see him the subject of criminal charges. The 45-page court document lays bare for the first time the details of how the peer and his chief operating officer, David Radler, are alleged to have repeatedly raided Hollinger International's coffers to finance their own lavish lifestyles and fund other business ventures between 1993 and last year. The two men, who were forced to step down last summer from their respective roles as chief executive and chief operating officer at Hollinger International, are claimed to have validated a series of payments, including $224m (£132m) in inflated management fees, to pay for luxuries including staff at Lord Black's 11-bedroom Kensington home, where one of his most prized possessions is the chair from which Napoleon directed his armies in battle. The writ said: "Defendant Black caused [Hollinger International] to pay substantial expenses associated with the staffing and operation of his New York and London homes, complete with personal residence staff and cars with drivers, and two private airplanes for his and Radler's business and personal uses." The defendants are alleged to have used a complex structure of holding companies to obtain the payments. The network, headed by Lord Black's Toronto-based corporation Ravelston Ltd, was the recipient of a series of "non-competition" payments worth $90m from the sale of part of his newspaper empire and the management fees at their disposal. It is alleged to have taken place by altering Hollinger International's records and failing to disclose details of the deals to the company's independent directors and shareholders. The writ says Lord Black - who counts among his friends the former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the White House adviser Richard Perle, the PR guru Lord Bell and the former foreign secretary Lord Carrington - is personally liable for the repayment of at least $21.3m in "non-competition" payments, of which he had already admitted $7.2m was unauthorised and should be repaid. The first $800,000 instalment was due to be paid by last night but the peer's representatives declined to comment on whether it would be made ... Writing to two of his executives about the struggle with shareholders over the company's falling share price before the dispute became public knowledge, the peer again showed his talent for Napoleonic invective. He wrote: "Some ... think that we are running a gravy train and a gerrymandered share structure, and we think they are a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites and ingrates, who give us no credit for what has been a skilful job of building and pruning a company in difficult circumstances." For those who know the peer, such robust language is an intrinsic part of a man whose stewardship of the Telegraph titles has not been without controversy, including the appointment as a star columnist of his wife, Barbara Amiel, the proud owner of 100 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes ... On how Mr Radler allegedly came up with a "back of the envelope" figure to set the $224m of management fees charged to Hollinger International over a 10-year period: "Radler used no 'scientific' approach for calculating the fee but simply came up with a proposed fee in consultation with Defendant Black ... The starting point for determining what management fee Ravelston would seek was not the cost of providing services but rather the amounts 'needed' by Ravelston to support its activities."

[Lawrence Small heads the Smithsonian museum and has served on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and is "chairman of the Financial Advisory Committee of Trans-Resources International, the parent company of Haifa Chemical, an Israeli firm."
Smithsonian Chief To Plead Guilty ...
Washington Post, January 20, 2004
"Smithsonian head Lawrence Small is expected to plead guilty later this week to a misdemeanor violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Yes birds. Small is a collector of Brazilian tribal art and he was charged after his art collection was found to "contain feathers from several protected species, including the jabiru, roseate spoonbill and crested caracara."

Man in Nuke Triggers Case Ordered Released,
By Matt Kelley, Las Vegas Sun, January 28, 2004
"An Israeli businessman accused of smuggling nuclear weapon triggers to Pakistan can be released while he awaits trial, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Prosecutors had asked that Asher Karni be held without bail. But U.S. District Court Chief Judge Thomas Hogan allowed him to be released under strict conditions, with Karni agreeing to waive his immunity from extradition from Israel or South Africa, to pay a $100,000 bond and to be electronically monitored while he stays in Maryland. Federal agents arrested Karni, 50, on New Year's Day when he arrived for a ski vacation in Colorado. The businessman from South Africa is accused of engineering the transfer of detonation devices called triggered spark gaps to Pakistan. The triggers can be used to set off nuclear weapons but also to break up kidney stones. Court documents say Karni tried to buy 200 of the devices from a Massachusetts maker to send to Pakistan even after the company told him the deal would require a U.S. export license. Exporting spark gaps to Pakistan without a license is illegal. A federal magistrate in Denver had ordered Karni released on $75,000 bail raised by friends in Cape Town, South Africa, as long as he stayed with a rabbi in Maryland. The government appealed the order to Hogan, who is overseeing the criminal case against Karni filed in Washington in December and unsealed after his arrest. Court records say Karni used a series of front companies and misleading shipping documents to buy the devices from a Massachusetts company, have them sent through New Jersey to South Africa, then on to the United Arab Emirates and later to Pakistan. What Karni didn't know, a federal officer said in an affidavit, was that authorities had intervened and had the manufacturer sabotage the devices so they couldn't be used. Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the country's nuclear scientists relied on the black market to supply Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and spread the technology to countries such as Iran and Libya. The father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and other nuclear scientists are under investigation for possibly breaking Pakistani law. Karni's Denver lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, did not return a telephone message left Wednesday. Hogan ordered Karni to stay at the Hebrew Sheltering Home in suburban Silver Spring, Md., under Rabbi Herzel Kranz's supervision."

[Jew to Jew hand(s)off. Judge Victoria Platzer is a member of the Jewish Museum of Florida. Maybe Judge Platzer is looking for a role in a Cohen movie?]
Death brings a fine, but no guilt finding A self-styled movie producer pleads no contest in a fatal hit-and-run, and the victim's family is left to wonder why the driver isn't a convicted felon,
BY MANNY GARCIA AND JASON GROTTO, Miami Herald, January 25, 2004
"Ira Marc Cohen got a pass on his first offense: running over Edwidge Calixte as she crossed Biscayne Boulevard. Police say the impact launched the Haitian visitor into the air and she landed on her head, killing her instantly. Cohen kept driving, police say, dumped his rental car in nearby Morningside, told friends that it had been stolen and went into hiding. But police say Cohen's alibi had holes: Officers found the rental car intact with the doors locked. Days later, when cops arrested Cohen, he was carrying his luggage and a set of keys to the rental. And there was an eyewitness: a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation investigator who said she drove by as Cohen's car slammed into Calixte. Suzanne Lee said she remembered the 1998 case like it was yesterday. She identified Cohen from his driver's license photo. ''He had red hair,'' she said. ``I see this in my vision everyday of my life. I remember this case vividly. I know it was him because I got a unique angle to see him by the car.'' Prosecutors charged Cohen with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and possession of a controlled substance and marijuana, which he was carrying when police caught him ... Cohen, who lists a Miami Beach address, faced up to 22 months in state prison. But the state offered him two years probation, 100 community service hours and ordered him to pay the victim's family $2,000 for her funeral. Miami-Dade Judge Victoria Platzer withheld the finding of guilt after first asking the prosecutor if the victim's family or lawyers had approved the plea. ''It's your understanding that since you have spoken with the civil attorneys that they are in agreement with the plea?'' the judge asked. ''That's correct,'' a prosecutor said. But the civil lawyers said they were not consulted about the plea. ''The family was never notified about the plea. The state never contacted us,'' attorney Caroline Mitchell said. ``I thought the state could have done more with the case. He got away with murder, you could say.'' Investigator Lee learned of the outcome from The Herald. ''I'm surprised,'' she said. ``He left her there to die.'' Cohen, through his laywer, declined comment. But his attorney said Cohen accepted a plea to end the ordeal. Judge Platzer said she agreed to the deal so the budding movie producer could keep working."

Fortress Re pays out $265 million,
By MARGARET MOFFETT BANKS, Greensboro News-Record (North Carolina), February 4, 2004
"Six weeks after losing a $1.1 billion arbitration award brought by a Japanese insurer, Fortress Re has paid $265 million to that company and two others. The payment is a signal the Burlington reinsurer is ready to settle fraud charges with all three companies, which could happen in late February, an attorney says. The $265 million includes a partial payment to Sompo Japan Insurance of Tokyo, which won the arbitration award against Fortress Re in December. It also includes more than $196 million to two other companies, neither of which have won any suits against Fortress Re. In the ongoing settlement negotiations, the three Japanese companies are asking for "a lot more than (Fortress Re) has paid already," said Cliff Schoenberg, an attorney for Sompo Japan. Glenn Drew, Fortress Re's attorney, declined to answer questions Tuesday, including whether the company or its owners -- philanthropist Maurice "Chico" Sabbah and Kenneth Kornfeld of Greensboro -- paid the $265 million. In December, an arbitration panel in New York ruled that Fortress Re engaged in fraud and "wilful and deliberate misconduct" when doing business with Sompo. The $69 million Fortress Re has paid to Sompo represents only 6 percent of the $1.1 billion arbitration award. The other two companies -- Aioi Insurance Co. and Taisei Reinsurance Co. -- also are pursuing civil fraud cases against Kornfeld, Sabbah, his family and the American Hebrew Academy, the Greensboro boarding school Sabbah founded ... Fortress Re was a reinsurance manager, a complicated business that provides insurance to insurance companies. For years, it was virtually unknown outside of reinsurance circles, operating from a nondescript brick building near downtown Burlington. Few people knew the company was a thriving, multibillion dollar business. Even fewer understood what Fortress Re did: manage an aviation-reinsurance "pool,'' a risk-sharing insurance group, for the three Japanese companies. The company was the pool manager for the four airplanes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001; accountants estimated $3.4 billion in losses on that day. The Japanese companies claim the tragedy revealed years of deception by Fortress Re: It couldn't pay those losses because Sabbah and Kornfeld kept hundreds of millions for themselves instead of saving it to cover claims. Sabbah is best known in Greensboro for his philanthropy. He recently was named by BusinessWeek magazine as one of the 50 more generous philanthropists in America. In 2001, he founded the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, the country's only non-Orthodox Jewish boarding school. BusinessWeek estimated Sabbah's donations and pledges to the school at $100 million. Sompo and the other Japanese companies claim Sabbah funded the school with their money, which explains why the school is named as a defendant in various lawsuits."

Schlagman Fined,
Totally Jewish, Feb 6, 2004
"A kosher butcher with an annual turnover of £1m has admitted his shop was in a filthy state with dried meat on walls and dead flies on the floor. Andrew Schlagman, 41, of Marsh Lane, Mill Hill, had failed to comply with notices from Barnet council’s environmental health department in relation to Schlagman kosher butchers and poulterers on Regents Park Road. Schlagman and his company, H. Schlagman and Sons, pleaded guilty to 11 summonses dating between October 2002 and July last year, and his company also pleaded guilty to the same offences at Hendon magistrates court last Thursday. The butcher was fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay £2,526 costs while his companythe staff rest area, toilet and toilet floor was covered with dirt and faeces when inspection officers visited on 19 June last year. Staff also had no running hot or cold water or soap to wash their hands. In the koshering room the inspector found employees weighing and wrapping raw meat despite the area being covered in dirt, debris and meat waste. was fined £5,500. Jonathon Rushton, representing Barnet council, said Rushton added that in storage sheds, dead flies were found on the floor and they had not been cleaned for some time. In the meat chilling room the inspector saw employees dragging containers of meat across a hole in the floor and also found holes in the wall of another room. Paint was flaking off near to uncovered meat. Dried chicken fat, meat waste and debris was found under display fridge cabinets. According to Rushton, despite receiving enforcement notices Schlagman had not cleared up the premises, which led to the prosecution."

'Sex and the City' my muse, my mirror,
By JOANNA BRODER, Cleveland Jewish News, Febaury 27, 2004
"Sunday nights will never be the same. That's the night for the past six years I have faithfully watched my favorite show, "Sex and the City." The show is completely on the mark when it comes to being single. I should know. I am 34, Jewish and single. In the early years (when most of my friends were also single) I would host "Sex and the City" parties where we would sip Chardonnay and simultaneously gasp as Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) had her sexual exploits. We'd laugh hysterically with recognition as the characters encountered the same types of wacky dating escapades we all knew so well. There is an indefinable Jewish quality and tone to the show, although none of the characters is Jewish, except for Charlotte (Kristen Davis), who converts to Judaism, and her husband, Harry (Evan Handler). But the show often evokes a Jewish sensibility ... In addition to the Jewish authenticity, the realness about being single is there in the writing. Ron Livingston, who played Carrie's one-time writer boyfriend Jack Berger (notorious for breaking up with her on a Post-it), was recently interviewed on TV. He joked that even the writers wait to see what happens on their dates before writing the next episode. I believe it. "Sex and the City" made it hip to be single. The show gave single women suffering through the dating world a weekly outlet for their trials and tribulations. It's nice to see single women pictured as independent enough to own up to their ambivalence about relationships and to make mistakes. In recent months I've watched "Sex and the City" with my new boyfriend of six months. After a long and hard year of excessive dating, I finally met someone at an event for young adults at my local Jewish federation. Funny how my life seems to parallel the characters on the show."

[Plenty more Jewish "indecency" here.]
Howard Stern suspended for indecency,
CNN, February 26, 2004
"The U.S.'s largest radio chain has taken shock jock Howard Stern off its stations indefinitely for running afoul of new decency standards. "We will not air Howard Stern on Clear Channel stations until we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting," said a Wednesday statement from John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. Stern was subdued but firm on air Thursday morning in response. "They are so afraid of me and what this show represents," he said. Earlier, he had wondered if he should even talk about the controversy. "I could blow my stack, but ... ," Stern said, trailing off. "A caller used the N word, and I hung up on him." Stern was referring to his Tuesday morning interview with Rick Salomon, Paris Hilton's ex-boyfriend and the man involved in her infamous sex video. A person called in during the interview and used a racial slur. The company said Stern's suspension from its stations came after a review of his Tuesday broadcast. "Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content, and Howard Stern's show blew right through it," Hogan said. "It was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African-Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency." The statement did not outline what parts of Stern's show ran afoul of the policy or how long the suspension might last. Clear Channel operates 1,200 stations nationwide. It was unclear how many of its stations currently run Stern, who is syndicated across the country by another company, Infinity Broadcasting. The suspension applies only to Clear Channel stations. Earlier in the day, Clear Channel, which has been under fire from the Federal Communications Commission over allegedly indecent content aired on its stations, announced a zero-tolerance policy that called for immediate suspension of its on-air personalities who cross the line."

[Hustling in the Synagogue. The Synagogue as Mammon ($) Temple:]
Gold Rushed. It sounded easy. Take $700,000 from strangers. Buy New Haven Savings Bank stock. Share the proceeds. Was it too easy?,
by Paul Bass, New Haven Advocate, February 26, 2004
"Two strangers strode into a New Haven synagogue one recent morning just as prayers were ending. They asked: Did anyone know of a service elsewhere in town they could still catch? Someone did. He directed them to Norton Street. I saw them on my way out of the synagogue. "Where are you from?" I asked. They'd just pulled in from New Jersey. "New Haven Savings Bank is going public," they told me. They were looking for people who have accounts at the bank. They had a business proposition. A lucrative one. "Are you," asked the man named Solomon, "a depositor?" NHSB depositors are in line for a windfall next month as the mutual (depositor-owned) bank becomes a stockholder-owned corporation. They can buy up to $700,000 in preferred stock before the rest of the public can buy any. The day the bank goes public, the stock will probably zoom in price, possibly between 40 percent and 70 percent, based on bank conversions in other cities. Instant profit: $300,000-$525,000. But who has hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest? Solomon and his sidekick, "Fred," said they did. Seven hundred thousand, to be exact. They were looking for depositors to take the money, buy stock, then split the proceeds, 25-75 (75 percent for them). A quick $100,000+ for the lucky depositor. "Yes," I told Solomon. "I'm a depositor." Thus began my initiation into the Great New Haven Gold Rush of 2004. You are?" Solomon's eyes lit up. Could he come over to my house and tell me how the deal works? "Just 15 minutes!" Call me at my office on Monday, I said. We exchanged phone numbers. Solomon talked about similar deals he'd put together in other states where mutual banks converted. "Are you sure this legal?" I asked. Boy, was he sure. He named the law firm he works with. He named investment firms, accounting firms. And he really, really wanted to talk more, right now, about an NHSB buy. Fred pointed to the car. "We've got to get" to the service, he urged Solomon. They left. Fred began calling me that night, at home. I told him I had qualms. I needed to check on the legality. Fine, he said. No problem. He offered more details: The $700,000 would be a loan to me. It would be secured by the stock purchase. So if the stock went down, I'd only have to hand over the stock to repay the loan. If the stock, as expected, shot up, I'd sell right away and split the profits as planned. The only legal problem, Fred acknowledged, came at that point. I could refuse to hand over 75 percent of a fat profit. Technically, the money I'd hand to them would constitute interest on a loan. And such high payment would constitute usury. So Fred and Solomon would have to trust me to honor the agreement. That's why they look for partners in religious communities. I told Fred I still needed to check the legality of this idea. He agreed to fax to my newspaper office a sample promissory note he used in arranging a similar deal when Brooklyn's Independence Bank went public. I doubt that this would be legal," Leonard Boyle, head of the U.S. Attorney's corporate fraud division, said when I laid out the plan. Boyle wasn't sure. The key legal question: whether the depositor/borrower truly owned the stock, "or if the party loaning the money was doing so in the guise of a 'nominee ownership.'" Depositors may not assign their stock to others under the terms of the NHSB deal. A line in Fred's promissory note casts further doubt on the transaction, Boyle said. The line reads: "[T]he Promisor"--that'd be me-- "agrees to to pay the Payee"--Solomon and Fred--"an amount equal to 80% of any investment profit the Promisor may earn on the Funds." A state Banking Department official told me that issuing such a promissory note would violate state law unless it were registered as a security. Fred and Solomon referred me to Solomon's attorney at a national law firm. Borrowing money to buy stock is not in itself prohibited, the attorney pointed out. Nothing in the legal papers states that the depositor assigns his stock to the lender. In fact, no specific stock purchase, no name of a bank, is mentioned. I replied that, especially when you factor in conversations, it's clear that this deal aims to do exactly what the law and the bank prospectus say not to do--turn your stock over to someone else. It may be legal. It very well may not be. Morally and ethically, it seems wrong. There's another problem, too: it cheats other New Haven Savings depositors. Lots of outsiders look to make deals like this when banks go public. They pour millions of dollars in--which means the stock offering can become oversubscribed. That limits how much stock the legitimate depositors can buy. If you're uncomfortable, Solomon's lawyer said, "you shouldn't do it." Fred and Solomon said the same thing. I told Fred how deeply I oppose the bank's conversion from a hometown mutual bank to a takeover target. "Don't fight it," Fred said. "You're not going to get anywhere. They're going to get it. Don't pass up an opportunity to make an extra buck." Maybe next time."

[So let's see if I 've got this right. If someone yells out for Jews (generally) to "commit unnatural acts with a camel" in a "quasi-riot" at a university and throw a violent temper tantrum in a university official's office, the Anti-Defamation League, in full dedication to its convictions about "tolerance" for all, will represent the offender against University punishment? Or is this a special protective game, as always, exclusively for Jews, wherein Jews swarm to the aid of a wild pro-Israel kook? What do you think? Even a Jewish fanatic is beloved to the Jew Klux Klan.]
Outspoken right-wing Israel advocate faces five-year S.F. State suspension,
by joe eskenazi, Jewish Bulletin March 5, 2004
"Unabashed pro-Israel advocate Tatiana Menaker is facing a potential five-year suspension from San Francisco State University after a pattern of “disruptive behavior,” in the words of school officials. The university accused Menaker — who was forced to serve 40 hours of community service after loudly urging pro-Palestinians to commit unnatural acts with a camel during a May 7, 2002, SFSU quasi-riot — of nine instances of disruptive behavior during the past two years. Menaker, a Russian-born mother of three and journalist in the San Francisco Russian press and right-wing online publications, claims the university is being used by “anti-Israel factions” to silence contrary voices, and said she is being disciplined “for ideological reasons, not because I did something criminal.” Acting university spokeswoman Christina Holmes said Menaker loudly and publicly threatened lecturer Deborah Gerson in November, and then flew into a rage and threw objects around the office of student discipline officer Donna Cunningham in a Monday, Feb. 23, meeting that resulted in Menaker being escorted off campus by police ... At the behest of the Jewish Community Relations Council, lawyer Ephraim Margolin took on Menaker as a client, pro bono. He met with SFSU counsel Patty Bartscher on Tuesday, March 2, but declined to discuss the content of that meeting and refused general comment because he “is still preparing the case.” A meeting between university officials and Menaker and Margolin is tentatively set for Monday, March 15. Any future hearing will be administered by an outside administrative judge. Both Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the JCRC, and Jonathan Bernstein, Anti-Defamation League regional director, met this week with SFSU administrators, with both emerging “cautiously optimistic” that a satisfactory solution could be worked out. Bernstein had wondered if the university was “overreacting” and “clamping down too hard” prior to the meeting, but he emerged confident that justice will be done."

Brooklyn Jew suspected of links to arms-smuggling into Israel,
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz (Israel), March 20, 2004
"A court in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Friday charged a 70-year-old Jewish resident of Brooklyn with alleged involvement in smuggling weapons into Israel. Leib Kohn, who is suspected of involvement in smuggling components for missiles and radar systems into Israel, was freed on bail set at $200,000. Sources involved in the investigation believe that Israel was not the final destination for the equipment, but was rather a transition point to a destination that is still unclear. The court was told that Kohn had acquired the components for the military radar, which is used in F14 Phantom jets, as well as for missile systems from the Radio Research International company based in Waterbury, Connecticut."

[JTR Contributor's comment: "Oh dear, this reads like a parody of Jewish morals": "a life of arrogance, betrayal, and wasted promise" "You found it surprising that this man, given what he so infamously did in his operating room, not to mention what he's accused of doing in the weeks and months that followed, would choose to deliver a lecture about professional standards" "And, just as they have explained it, he does it in a way that suggests he has no choice but to do it, and that he is confident, in the end, you will appreciate being made aware of just how far you've fallen short of his expectations." "Overnight, the high-octane, Harvard-trained Arndt became the doctor who left his patient on the operating table so he could go to the bank to cash a check" "Within two months, Arndt would be charged with statutory child rape, indecent assault, and drug possession." "As the capstone to Arndt's residency, Lipson advocated for him to be named chief resident at Beth Israel in 1997. Given his father's longstanding connections there, "it felt like home for David."" "Arndt punched him in the head, pushed him out of the bedroom, and then threw a chair at him. Arndt was charged with assault and battery, burglary, and malicious destruction of property" "He acted if the proceedings were an incredible invasion on his otherwise important life. He had absolute contempt for the fact that someone might have the audacity to hold him accountable for his bizarre and destructive behavior." "(he arrived) Thirty-five minutes later. He admitted he had gone to the bank, and the OR staff said he seemed surprised that they would be upset with him." "He was always presenting himself as the victim" "Arndt would be charged with four counts of statutory child rape and one count each of indecent assault and battery, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, contributing to the delinquency of a child, and possession of the drugs ketamine hydrochloride ("Special K") and methamphetamine." "Soon after came Arndt's "poverty motion," asking the court to pay his costs because, according to his lawyer, he was indigent and his parents needed to save for their retirement."]
What Went Wrong? The son of a prominent Boston doctor, David Arndt was on his way to becoming a leading surgeon in his own right when a bizarre blunder interrupted his climb: He left his patient on the operating table so he could cash his paycheck. A series of arrests followed, exposing a life of arrogance, betrayal, and wasted promise, leaving only one question left to answer,
Boston Globe magazine, March 21, 2004
"The kid was born into medicine. He was on track to becoming one of Boston's next great spine surgeons, taking his place alongside his father among the city's medical elite. But on this day in January, the 43-year-old sits on the dark bench in the dimly lit gallery of Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, watching the parade of career criminals take their familiar positions, wearing expressions of defiance or boredom. Look in his eyes, however, behind the boxy glasses, and you can see flashes of bewilderment. How did I get here? He watches as a paunchy guy charged with conspiring to kill a cop asks the court officer if he can give the large, weeping woman in the front row "a kiss and my lottery tickets" before being led away. And then the clerk calls out his number: "Case number 38 - David Arndt' ... Dr. Arndt. For the better part of a decade, that wasn't just his name, it was his identity. The domineering surgeon cutting his path - loved by some, loathed by others. But respected. That identity has been confiscated along with everything else he valued so much - standing, status, power. Now he's just another David standing in a criminal courtroom wondering what his future holds ... You found it surprising that this man, given what he so infamously did in his operating room, not to mention what he's accused of doing in the weeks and months that followed, would choose to deliver a lecture about professional standards ... Overnight, the high-octane, Harvard-trained Arndt became the doctor who left his patient on the operating table so he could go to the bank to cash a check. In an instant, that summer of 2002, the news went national. But the profound professional embarrassment would turn out to be only the beginning. Within two months, Arndt would be charged with statutory child rape, indecent assault, and drug possession. He would file a "poverty motion," the surgeon in one of medicine's most lucrative specialties asking the court to pay his costs. And then, in a separate case nearly a year later, he would face one more charge, this one for possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute ... Then, perhaps more troubling, there's that voice inside them, which had been muffled deep for so long, the one that kept telling them it was only a matter of time before David Arndt's self-absorption and sense of invincibility finally got the best of him. ... Though David would eventually become comfortable in his homosexuality, it's not surprising that his teenage years were more difficult ... One day in 1983, he walked into a San Francisco clinic where Stephen M. Goldfinger, a psychiatrist who oversaw mental health services for the homeless, was presiding over a case conference. Afterward, they talked, and soon they were dating and then living together ... In 1988, David Arndt came home. He made his way to the hallowed ground of Harvard Medical School, where his father, one of the nation's top dermatologists, was a heavyweight ... Soon after Arndt joined the medical school's class of 1992, Steve Goldfinger joined the Harvard faculty. They shared a gracious Victorian in Jamaica Plain that was well appointed with the artwork they had collected together on their travels ... Lipson was particularly troubled by one area of Arndt's behavior that arose as his residency progressed. Some male orderlies and nurses were complaining that Arndt had made what they felt were inappropriate comments to them, he says. "I had to warn him not to pursue sexual interactions with other male staff," Lipson recalls. "Otherwise it was going to be a problem, and he could be chastised and reported to the administration."

'Hard’ Time. Best Places to Go to Prison,
By Penelope Patsuris, ABCNEWS, Sept. 24
"Federal Prison Camp Otisville Otisville was designed primarily with the Orthodox Jewish community in mind, although it is not officially designated as a Jewish facility. It was built in response to the fact that Orthodox Jews often tried to get out of doing time by making the legal argument that the Bureau of Prisons violated their First Amendment rights because it could not accommodate their religious lifestyle. Location: Otisville, N.Y. Opened: 1980 Capacity: 100 Population: 119 Amenities: One dorm with two-man cubicles. Playing cards, board games and walking. No athletics. No vocational training. Prisoner perks: Kosher kitchen, weekly Shabbat observances. Every year during Passover, Jewish convicts are flown into Otisville temporarily to participate in a seder."

Jeweler pleads guilty in missile sale case,
Focal Point Publications (from CNN), March 30, 2004
"A New York jeweler and money remitter pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in the transfer of $30,000 used -- without his knowledge -- as the down payment on the sale of a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile, the U.S. attorney's office said. Yehuda Abraham, 76, also admitted before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden that he was prepared to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars more from the same contacts involved in the missile sale in a separate deal. Abraham said that in both instances he did not know, and did not ask, what the money was to be used for. He pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed money transfer company. At his sentencing July 19, Abraham faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors said Abraham handled funds for the initial missile purchase by Hemant Lakhani, 68, of London. Lakhani is alleged to have told an investigator that the shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles being imported into the United states "could be used most effectively in terrorist attacks against commercial aircraft in the United States if 10 to 15 commercial aircraft were shot down simultaneously at different locations throughout the country," according to the indictment against him. In September, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said Lakhani waived his Miranda rights and confessed at length to an FBI agent on the day of his arrest."

[Take a guess. What is, below, the "tie to Judaism?" Billion dollar fraud. And allegiance to Israel. This is the corrupt co-foundation from wherein "future Jewish leaders" arise from a band of spoiled, filthy rich Jewish student prima donnas and ... Where's Hollywood?! This story even has a 9-11 connection.]
ACADEMY: MOLDING FUTURE LEADERS,
Organizers of the American Hebrew Academy spared no expense in creating an atmosphere for students to embrace their faith, but its founder is embroiled in a billion-dollar fraud case that could jeopardize the school's financial stability,
By Margaret Moffett Banks, Greensboro News-Record, February 15, 2004
"Lior Gilo knows how good she's got it. The 17-year-old is sitting in a hallway, a school-issued laptop balanced on her knee. She has the world at her fingertips at the American Hebrew Academy, where computerized microscopes, wireless Internet access, interactive chalkboards that project online encyclopedias and Israeli TV in every classroom are part of the school day."In the beginning, we were like, 'Oh my God, this stuff is so crazy,"' said Lior, a senior and the student body president. "For me, I'm still amazed." Six years ago, it was little more than one man's dream: Take 100 acres off Hobbs Road and build an elite boarding school - the Jewish Exeter, the Jewish Andover, the Jewish equivalent of New England prep schools famous for producing Fortune-500 CEOs. Hire Frank Lloyd Wright's partner as the campus architect. Import Jerusalem stone for every building. Stock classrooms with technology direct from Silicon Valley. And above all, nurture future Jewish leaders so they may always retain their Jewish identity. Today, the academy is considered one of America's top Jewish schools, a place where students receive an Ivy League education in a Jewish-centered setting. But the school's financial stability might be in jeopardy because of a billion-dollar fraud case, which could be settled this month. Attorneys claim Maurice "Chico" Sabbah of Greensboro built the academy with $104 million "wrongfully diverted" from three Japanese insurers who were clients of Sabbah's Fortress Re reinsurance company. Sabbah has denied the charges, but his lawyers are participating in settlement talks. Lawyers for the insurers are coy about how they hope to recover the money. Cliff Schoenberg, an attorney for one Japanese company, won't say what his clients want - cash, land, buildings. But what he does say makes clear his position: The Japanese want their money back ... In 1998, organizers announced plans to turn $8.3 million worth of land into a lavish boarding school, with million-dollar dorms, highly trained teachers, classrooms wired with the latest technology. Architect Aaron Green unveiled a Prairie-style design that's textbook Frank Lloyd Wright, including light-filled classrooms and green roofs. Trustees would say only that the money - there would need to be lots for their ambitious plan - was coming from a "small group of anonymous donors." Yet many in Greensboro's tight-knit Jewish community suspected Chico Sabbah was bankrolling the project almost exclusively, something tax and court records later revealed. Between 1997 and 2000, records show, the academy received $99.6 million, most from Sabbah's private charity and an anonymous fund he established. Sabbah declined to be interviewed for this article but allowed his daughter to give a tour of the normally intensely private school grounds. Few people in Greensboro have visited the campus, heavily guarded by Greensboro police, private security officers and a black metal gate that surrounds the school. Even fewer people understand why Sabbah built the academy, the nation's only boarding school for non-Orthodox Jews. It was his deep love of his Jewish faith and tradition, and a fear that fewer and fewer young people were embracing it, said his daughter, academy spokeswoman Leeor Sabbah. "He wanted to create an environment where (students) could feel tied to Judaism,'' she said. "Part of the vision of Mr. Sabbah is to create an environment to nurture future Jewish leaders of the world." Springsong, whose interest in Judaism spiked after her bat mitzvah, learned about the academy through a brochure. She said she was reluctant to leave Republic, filled with her family and lifelong friends. But she was more reluctant to leave her interest in Judaism unexplored. "Something was missing," she said. "I never knew what it was." For that very reason, Judaism is the heart of campus life. The academy "keeps Kosher," meaning there is strict separation of meat and dairy products, a religious tradition not every Jew observes. Students must attend Sabbath services on Friday nights, along with daily prayer meetings. Those with shaky Hebrew must practice until they become fluent enough to chant prayers. And juniors spend 12 weeks in Israel, studying and practicing their Hebrew as they explore the country. The academy offers what it calls a "dual curriculum," which includes traditional and Jewish-centered course work. Students enroll in seven classes a semester, three more than the average Guilford County student taking a block-style schedule. Hebrew-language and Judaic study courses are mandatory ... Each of the five $1.7 million dorms includes spacious rooms for roughly 20 students. Because administrators believe in strict supervision of students, each dorm includes a 2,200-square-foot apartment for house parents, with four bedrooms and granite countertops. The headmaster will live on campus, too - in a $472,000 house being built this year. Visitors aren't allowed to drive far past the entrance gate; gas-powered vehicles aren't allowed on campus for environmental and security reasons. Students either walk or ride electric-powered golf carts along the winding, wooded paths between buildings. They're driven off-campus in a school-owned shuttle. And talk about supervision: Teachers have technology to monitor students' use of the Internet in their classroom by viewing the images on their screens ... Weathering the lawsuit storm Sabbah, 75, made his fortune through Fortress Re - the "Re" stands for reinsurance. He and partner Kenneth Kornfeld managed an aviation-reinsurance "pool,'' a risk-sharing insurance group, for three Japanese companies. Those companies paid premiums to Fortress Re, which was expected to use that money to pay claims if any airplanes crashed. On Sept. 11, 2001, one day after the academy opened, terrorists crashed four airplanes, all insured by Fortress Re's pool. The Japanese companies say in multiple lawsuits that Sabbah and Kornfeld spent the money they were supposed to save for such an event. Fortress Re shareholders deny the charge. But in December, an arbitration panel found Fortress Re guilty of defrauding one of the companies, Sompo Insurance Co., and ordered Fortress Re to pay $1.1 billion. Fortress Re has paid $265 million to Sompo and the two other Japanese companies. All three expect to receive hundreds of millions more through a settlement, which could be reached in late February, said Sompo attorney Schoenberg. It's unclear whether Sabbah and Kornfeld will use their personal fortunes to pay the settlement. Schoenberg said "there's no accusation that the American Hebrew Academy acted improperly," only that Fortress Re gave the academy "illicitly gotten gains" the Japanese want back. His tone changes when he mentions multimillion-dollar geothermal wells buried under the soccer field - the largest of their kind in the United States and the source of the academy's water. "It appears that's where they spent all the pool members' money," he said. The settlement does inspire thoughts of an "incongruity," as one British insurance publication wrote in November: "the Japanese owning the first ever American Hebrew boarding school." But it's unlikely the Japanese will take over the school; there won't be a Sompo Academy in Greensboro, Schoenberg said. Meanwhile, trustees are moving forward - building an $11.6 million athletics center and pool, aggressively recruiting students, advertising jobs for teachers and house parents. Sabbah's lawyers won't discuss the pending settlement or what that settlement might mean for the academy. Leeor Sabbah said its future will be unchanged regardless of the outcome of her father's legal problems, with one exception: Leaders are seeking high-dollar donors in America and abroad."

Grand Jury Scrutinizes Right-Wing Bingo King.L.A. Panel Eyes Settlers' Patron,
By Nathaniel Popper, Forward, April 15, 2004
"A grand jury in Los Angeles County has been seeking information about the California gambling operations of Dr. Irving Moskowitz, a Miami Beach philanthropist known for his financial support of Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Scott Wildman, a former Democratic member of the California state Assembly, told the Forward that he had been called to testify on March 3 before the grand jury, which meets behind closed doors. Wildman said the questions posed to him focused mainly on the casino and bingo hall that Moskowitz owns in the impoverished city of Hawaiian Gardens, just south of Los Angeles. In particular, Wildman said, the questions dealt with a 154-page investigative report issued in 2000 by the staff of the state legislature's Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which Wildman chaired. The report detailed a series of alleged improprieties in the establishment and operation of Moskowitz's casino and bingo hall. "They were concerned about the fact that very little investigative work had been done subsequent to the report," Wildman said, "and that very few of the issues had been looked into." Moskowitz's supporters in Hawaiian Gardens frequently credit tax receipts from his casino with keeping the cash-strapped municipality afloat. But opponents, including the Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem — an organization composed mostly of Jewish peace activists — have long accused the 76-year-old physician of commandeering the political structures of the tiny city to serve his philanthropic interests, particularly his funding of controversial projects in Israel and the territories. The battle over the Hawaiian Gardens casino represents one of the most dramatic instances of the Middle East conflict spilling over into local American politics. The Hawaiian Gardens bingo hall, a not-for-profit operation launched in 1988, and the casino, a for-profit operation opened in 1997, are major sources for the millions of dollars that tax documents show Moskowitz has poured into the coffers of right-wing settlement groups such as Ateret Cohanim and the Everest Foundation. Moskowitz's money has frequently been used with the goal of establishing a Jewish presence in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Construction at Moskowitz-connected sites repeatedly has sparked unrest and worldwide protests, including the 1997 opening of an archaeological tunnel near the Temple Mount that led to battles in which 76 people died ... Grand jury proceedings are confidential — defendants are not always alerted when they are being investigated — and jury officials will not reveal any cases on the current docket. But sources familiar with the proceedings have confirmed to the Forward that other witnesses appearing before the grand jury also have been asked about Moskowitz's gambling operations. The matter is being handled by the public integrity section of the grand jury, which evaluates possible criminal charges. ... Moskowitz's nonprofit bingo parlor funnels its proceeds to a charitable foundation, the Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation. In 2001, the last year for which tax records are available, the foundation donated about $500,000 to beneficiaries in Hawaiian Gardens, and more than $2.9 million to Israel-related causes. Of that sum, $1.75 million went to a single charity, the American Friends of the Everest Foundation, which was founded by Moskowitz to fund religious institutions and land acquisition in Jerusalem, according to Israeli news reports ... The report on Moskowitz recommended that state and local law enforcement authorities "investigate for criminal or corrupt activity" the actions surrounding the 1995 Hawaiian Gardens redevelopment project, which included the casino. It also recommended that the state force Moskowitz to pay back $12 million in city redevelopment funds he received for the casino, and that his attorney, Weiner, be referred to California's state bar association for investigation. The report noted that Moskowitz spent half a million dollars of his own money to campaign for the 1995 referendum, something the report deemed illegal under a state law that bars casinos' financial backers from influencing election initiatives about their establishments. In addition, the report cited numerous instances in which Moskowitz and his casino allegedly exerted undue influence over the political operations of the town. The report also questioned whether there was a conflict of interest involving Weiner, who served as legal counsel both to Moskowitz and to the city's redevelopment agency when it provided the multimillion dollar grant for the construction of the casino."

Medicare Fraud Mystery Ends in N.Y,
By MICHAEL HILL, Las Vegas Sun, April 17, 2004
"The international criminal mastermind came to court in jeans and handcuffs. He needed a shave. For two years, he was at the center of a multimillion-dollar mystery. Medicare money was being claimed fraudulently thousands of times through an elaborate scheme that stretched from Brooklyn to Latvia to Tijuana, Mexico. Even as authorities learned what was happening, they had trouble finding out who was behind it. "This is what's different about this case," said FBI special agent Susan Phillips. "We didn't know who the person was." A protracted game of cat and mouse finally led investigators to their man, who has pleaded guilty to fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges. The story ends Wednesday with sentencing in federal court in Binghamton. The case began in May 2001 with suspicious claims for Medicare, the federal health insurance for the elderly and disabled. Investigators at the Albany office of the Department of Health and Human Services were forwarded claims from 20 Medicare beneficiaries. The out-of-pocket claims were for "high dollar procedures" like chemotherapy and MRIs, which could run as high as $2,000 or $3,000. And they were all from the same commercial mailbox in a store in Brooklyn. "Clearly, they would all have to be 2 1/2 inches tall to live at the store," said William Pericak, assistant U.S. attorney for New York's Northern District. Pericak's office joined with the FBI and Health and Human Services to investigate. They found more suspicious claims in additional mailboxes in the Los Angeles area - 119 names in all. The "patients" were identity theft victims, many Russian immigrants in Brooklyn. The victims' real addresses would be switched to commercial mailboxes. Couriers were dispatched to the mailboxes to pick up the reimbursement checks, some coming into Southern California from Tijuana. Authorities held off arresting the couriers in hopes of getting a bead on their elusive boss, who never seemed to step foot in this country. Reimbursement checks were deposited in Internet bank accounts. Withdrawals were made through ATMs or wire transfers in Latvia, Ukraine, Cyprus and Southern California. More than $7 million was claimed in three years and up to $2 million paid out. Who was doing this? Audio tapes made by a bank's customer call center gave an enticing clue to the identity of the quarry: It was a man with an accent, maybe Russian. As the investigation continued through the fall of 2001, the mystery man switched strategies, stealing identities from dead doctors authorities believe he found in obituaries. Instead of putting in for $3,000 beneficiary claims, he was now putting in for $50,000 doctor claims. As he grew more audacious, he remained careful. Voice mail accounts under bogus names like "Pancho Lopez" were untraceable. Street addresses on applications turned out to be parking lots. Agents refrained from shutting down the ring so they could catch their man. But he would leave money sitting in accounts if he sensed trouble. Pericak compares him to the quick-learning velociraptors in the movie "Jurassic Park." "Every move he makes he says `Think it through. If I do this, what is the risk?'" Pericak said. "Over time, he was learning." After months of digging, investigators found out their mystery man had flown from the Ukraine to Tijuana on a particular day. Still without a name, they pulled passenger lists. They filtered through lists of hundreds of thousands of passengers, trying to match their suspect with the morsels of information they had. (One thing they knew: he traveled with a woman nicknamed Katya). It was needle-in-a-haystack work. Pericak took the list with him to bed one night when his wife asked what he was looking for. "I don't know," he answered. Cross-checking turned up a maybe: Konstantyn "Kostya" Pekerman. Pekerman, now 38, is a native of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine who came to New York City in the early '90s. He was deported after a health care fraud conviction. They thought Pekerman was probably the guy. But since he was in the Ukraine, he was beyond the reach of arrest warrants. An opportunity came suddenly last April when they discovered Pekerman was going to fly from Mexico to the Ukraine. A stopover in Frankfurt, Germany allowed an arrest in a country that provided for extradition. German police arrested Pekerman April 30, 2003. He was carrying the names of people with stolen identities. He was flown back to face criminal charges in federal court in Albany. Pekerman pleaded guilty to charges of Medicare fraud, money laundering and two conspiracy counts in December. He faces eight to 12 years in prison when he is sentenced."