After a raid uncovered that three Charedi organizations have embezzled millions from the government, police revealed Monday that 40 other establishments were involved in the case.
Six men were arrested on Sunday when police found more than a thousand fake ID cards at the offices of three nonprofit organizations that operate yeshivot in the Jerusalem area. The suspects allegedly falsified the records in order to receive monthly stipends from the Education Ministry for students who did not exist.
Each of the suspects had a unique role in the forgery, an operation the police said was worthy of a “crime ring.”
“The investigation shows that dozens of organizations were founded and transferred fake names to the Education Ministry in order to illegally receive funds,” a police official said.
The police began to covertly monitor the illegal activity a few months ago, when members of the Neturei Karta sect found out their names were being used to receive stipends from the State, and informed law enforcement officials.
During a preliminary hearing Monday a police official presented to the judge a photo album from which photos were taken for the fake IDs. One of the photos was featured on no less than three different cards.
The official stated that every fake name that the organizations listed brought in 880 NIS (about $240) a month on average. Since there were more than 40 foundations, each reporting hundreds of fake names, the suspects embezzled hundreds of thousands of NIS a month for each organization, which amounted to tens of millions of NIS a year.
“This system has been in place for many years,” she said. “During yesterday’s raid millions of NIS were found, some in cash, while some went directly to the pockets of the suspects and to other sources.”
Following the hearing, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court decided to extend the remand of the arrested men by four days, even though the police requested a 15-day extension to avoid a disruption in the investigation.
Attorney Yair Nehorai, who represents the suspects, responded by saying that since the police decided to release all the details of the case, including the names of the suspects and the way they operated, his clients should be released.
“Every potential suspect knows exactly what he is accused of and who is involved, so we think the police’s claim that the suspects should not be released to avoid disrupting the investigation procedure is inappropriate,” he said.
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18 Responses
Wait, you mean the NK (who I agree are Rishoyim) in this case did a mitzvah and you want to paint them in a negative light? Rav Elyashiv says that the ganavim (if found to be true which it seems likely) are RODFIM. NK did a mitzvah here!
Finally the NK does something right.
A stopped clock is right twice a day.
I applaud NK for their actions in reporting the fraud, but I wonder how exactly they justify it in their own minds. I generally assume that groups have complex and nuanced reasons underlying their philosophy, and NK is no exception. How then do they justify utilizing the zionist government to prevent fraud against the zionist government. It seems that (1) They should be unconcerned by the fraud (unless perhaps they are concerned that it will appear that they are accepting government funds), and (2) They shouldn’t be utilizing zionist police to enforce zionist laws.
Perhaps someone here knows how to explain their actions?
1 & 2, Why is it so right in your eyes?? to be part of the cause to bring about a Chilul Hashem is such a Mitzva?! Wouldn’t it be better to warn the Mosad that if they don’t stop then he will tell?
I really hope the people that were stealing weren’t the same people complaining about the lack of sufficient gov’t stipends.
To Neturei Karta, maybe in their eyes, compared to them, every other group is trefe and cooperates in some even very minor way with the Zionists, and should be punished.
May G-d help us with the hillul H’ potential here
Everybody may bemistaken here. The NK mentioned is Probably not the rodfim that went to Iran and hugged Arafat YM”SH. There is a real NK, who have Rabbonim (It used to be the Satmar ROV ZAL) and leaders who are true Yorei Shomayim, who do what they do with Daas Torah. They do not agree withthe publicity honds that do terrible things. Making that assumption we can then assume that they went to their Rabbonim, and asked for advice, since their names were used and they could get into trouble. They may also have gone to thos Mosdos and said something, finally going to the authorities when all else failed.
Just because something is reported does not give anyone a carte blanche heter to bad mouth anyone. As Rav Elyahshuv said IF it is true. Same here, If it was the NK, it may have been the Truly frum ones. IF it was the other guys, then their redifah knows no end, and their wickedness continues.
lets face it. nk have experience being rats. it doesnt help the cause for morality even mentioning them in this piece. just makes chilonim think that all chareidim are in one big lump.
and since when does the yeshiva world take ynet as fact?
“If it was the NK, it may have been the Truly frum ones. IF it was the other guys, then their redifah knows no end, and their wickedness continues.”
So cooperating with the government is OK if done by a specific group, but wickedness if done by others?
Identity theft is a terrible crime and if you suspect you are a victim of this crime, go to the police, even if “all they did” was use your identity to steal money for kollelim. Once they have your identity, you never know what else they might have done with it.
YNET is an anti-religious, pro-zionist source, so why would Neturei Karta “leak” anything to them, and why would anyone believe YNET.
wow -YW really does have an agenda here – I guess freedom of speech exists only when its pleasant.
ynet is to to left of center–however that is not the point..
the point is “chariedi” orgs tried to steal- they got caught and will now have to pay the consequences.
end of story-
no difference- they stole – they got caught- now they will have to deal with it…
I agree with akuperma’s statement. It seems quite odd that NK would do anything that would benefit the Israeli government. Perhaps its true, but I’m skeptical at this point.
“All that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
well we live here (in eretz yisroel)and are close to the story
there is no clear thing that NK are the ones who told police about it
it is just a assumption of some pepole (because the ongoing conflict between them)