New York Post, February 10th, 2001:
Rabbis: We Looted Holocaust
Charity
By David Seifman and Dan Mangan
Two Brooklyn rabbis - including an adviser to former Mayor Ed
Koch - yesterday pleaded guilty to swindling the federal
government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for
Holocaust survivors. Rabbis Jacob Bronner, 51, and Efroim
Stein, 55, each agreed to serve 33 months in prison and repay up
to $162,500 in restitution.
The Hasidic rabbis - who controlled the not-for-profit charity
Project Social Care - remain free on $500,000 bond until their June 8
sentencing. They read details of their crimes in Brooklyn federal
court in front of U.S. Magistrate Viktor Pohorelsky, but would
not comment afterward.
Bronner served for 12 years as unpaid adviser on Jewish affairs to
Koch, who appointed him to the city's Human Rights Commission. "I
only have nice things to say about him," Koch said yesterday.
Brooklyn-based Project Social Care was established in 1994 to
provide Holocaust survivors and immigrants with medical, job
training, and other services. In 1995, the organization applied for
and received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Housing and Urban
Development department.
The application detailed a program "of support and counseling
tailored to meet the needs of elderly Holocaust survivors," helping
them "deal directly with the Holocaust experience."
The court papers say Bronner and Stein conspired to misspend
hundreds of thousands of dollars of the grant in three ways from 1995
to 1996:
* Project Social Care allegedly paid companies for non-existent
goods and services, with the bulk of that money then kicked back to
the rabbis.
* Funds were paid to an institute and several of Stein's relatives
for nonexistent training; most of the institute-earmarked funds then
went to a Stein-controlled synagogue.
* Project Social Care paid the Council of Jewish Organizations of
Borough Park (COJO) in a subcontracting deal that required the
council to kick back money to businesses controlled by Bronner and
Stein. Those included United Housing & Community Services,
B&B Furniture Company, and CCI Community Consultants.
COJO officials were prosecuted in Brooklyn federal court in the
late 1990s on charges of swindling the federal government out of
funds. Several were convicted.
City records show Bronner signed a letter of intent with lobbyist
Suri Kasirer on Dec. 29, 1998 to try to win city
contracts.
But the $3,000-a-month deal apparently was never consummated,
since Kasirer reported receiving no payments and said she conducted
no lobbying. Kasirer, who is married to Bruce Teitelbaum,
Mayor Giuliani's former chief of staff, couldn't be reached
last night.
