Berlin Jewish
Elections Stir Controversy Over Identity. Jewish
Bulletin of Northern California, May 30, 1997
"Jewish community elections in Germany are rarely covered in the
German media. But the upcoming election in Berlin on June 1 has catapulted
the city's Jewish community into the national media spotlight. The stories
center on real estate scandals, alleged financial mismanagement of community
funds and embittered personal rivalries among community officials. The
reports, which cast a shadow on the integrity of some leading members
of Germany's largest Jewish community, come just two years before the
German government is scheduled to move most of its offices from Bonn
to Berlin. Jewish leaders worry that if the negative publicity continues,
it could weaken community structures and damage the political influence
of Berlin's Jewish community in the German capital."
Councillors
Jailed for Vote-Rigging Scam That May Have Cost Labour Control of Hackney.
The Independent [Great Britain], April
21, 2001
"Two councillors were jailed yesterday for a massive vote-rigging
scandal that may have cost Labour control of a London authority. Police
said the plot in the borough of Hackney by the Conservative Isaac
Leibowitz and the Liberal Democrat Zev Lieberman was probably
the largest attempt to 'subvert the democratic process' yet seen in
Britain. Leibowitz, 36, was jailed for six months and Lieberman, 29,
for four months after Judge Jeremy Connor said their 'enthusiasm for
public office' led to fraud and a violation of the election process.
They engineered a 2,000 per cent increase in proxy voting, registered
Americans as local voters and tricked pensioners into handing over voting
rights."
Paris Jews Worry About
Image After Some Are Accused in Scandal. JTA
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency), March 5, 2001
"A major scandal has hit the heart of Paris' heavily Jewish clothing
district. The affair's ingredients include a pyramid scheme, $80 million,
12 of the 124 accused fleeing to Israel, charges of anti-Semitism and
one of France's most popular films. The defendants, a majority of whom
are Jews from Morocco and Tunisia who came to France in the 1960s immigration
wave, are store owners accused of having swindled French banks for loans
to buy non-existent goods. The affair blew open last month when a vast
pyramid scheme, which some suggest has been going on for decades, came
tumbling down after a series of bank loans were defaulted ... The scheme
ended when police began searching for shop owners who had not paid their
loans, prompting several of the accused to flee for other countries,
including Switzerland and Israel. But the case took on a different tone
as the French government accused Israel of knowingly harboring fugitives,
despite having signed an international extradition pact. 'By intentionally
pursing this policy, Israel removed itself from the family of nations,'
said French prosecutor Francois Franchy."
Poland's
Jewish Community Grappling with Scandal.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California,
April 30, 1999
"The Jewish community in Poland is being wracked by a scandal that
has forced the country's umbrella Jewish organization to fire its treasurer
and downgrade the status of the Jewish communities in Gdansk and Poznan.
It involves what the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland termed 'very
serious financial irregularities' committed by Gdansk Jewish community
Chairman Jakub Szadaj, as well as a 'slanderous campaign' Szadaj
has conducted in the mainstream media against the union's board and
other Jewish organizations. 'It is an extremely unpleasant, depressing
and destructive situation,' Stanislaw Krajewski, a member of
the union's board, told JTA from Warsaw. 'The Polish press has
begun to report that the Jews are quarreling over money' ... Jewish
organizations tried to keep the affair quiet, but after Szadaj was removed
from his position as the local JDC-sponsored social relief worker in
Gdansk, he gave an interview to a Gdansk newspaper."
Prague
Jewish Leaders May Sue Over Charges of Theft.
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), August 2, 2001
"Jewish leaders here are considering legal action over a book published
in the United States claiming that huge sums of money 'disappeared'
from the Jewish community's coffers over a period of several years.
The allegation — which appears in the 1999 book 'The Great Jewish Cities
of Central and Eastern Europe: A Travel Guide and Resource Book to Prague,
Warsaw, Crakow & Budapest' — was dismissed by the Prague Jewish community,
which said its reputation was being damaged. The book's author, New
York-based writer Eli Valley, worked in Prague's community for
several years organizing cultural and religious events until 1997. In
the book, he argued that Prague had become one of the wealthiest Jewish
communities in Europe through money received from restituted properties
and tourist revenues. He also wrote, 'The enormous amount of capital
flowing into the Community has created unprecedented opportunities for
corruption and mismanagement. It is an open secret in the Jewish Community
that millions of Czech crowns disappear every year. The question remains
as to how many individuals are involved in the disappearance.'
One million Czech crowns is currently worth about $25,000 ... Valley,
the son of a New York rabbi, expressed surprise that the community was
contemplating legal action."
Montreal Assailed
for Jewish Mob-Member Focus.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California,
June 6, 1997
"Canadian Jewish groups are demanding an apology from a French
Montreal daily for a story they claim is anti-Semitic. The article focused
on Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrests of Jewish members of a criminal
organization, even though most of the group is not Jewish. The story
in the newspaper La Presse ran Wednesday of last week under the
headline, 'RCMP Strike a Deadly Blow to a Jewish Criminal Organization.'
It described a criminal group led by Montrealers with Jewish-sounding
last names. These men, Morris Mayers and Shimon Ben-David,
were charged along with Mahmood Hassan and Thomas McKinnon, but La
Presse focused on the Jewish identity of the organization. Only
seven of the group's 31 members, also suspected of smuggling drugs,
are said to be Jewish ... The league sent a letter to Claude Masson,
La Presse's assistant publisher, demanding a published apology
.... But Masson defended his paper's coverage. 'I think we're playing
with words a bit,' he was quoted as saying. 'I think we should be careful
about being so politically correct that we can no longer say what is
happening in our society.' Masson did say he would reserve judgment
until meeting with representatives of Jewish groups. But he pointed
out that the leaders of the criminal group have been identified as Jewish
by the RCMP, which stated that the main leaders have Jewish or Israeli
connections."
What
you Won't Read About Michael Harari, Noriega's Israeli Advisor Who Got
Away.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, February
1990
"In the spring of 1988, when Colonel Herrara first broke with [Panama
dictator Manuel] Noriega and took refuge in Miami, he said of Michael
Harari: 'We call him 'Mr. 60 Percent' because he gets that much
from any deal that he makes.' Harari took kickbacks from Israeli businessmen
seeking to invest in Panama, and split the proceeds with Noriega. Just
how profitable that was is indicated by a Panamanian Jewish leader quoted
in the Washington Jewish Week of Dec. 28: 'The Israelis working
here do not, by and large, reflect well either on Israel or the Panamanian
Jewish community. They have practically gained control of the Central
Avenue business district. They are engaged in contraband and money laundering.
In general, they engage in very aggressive and often unfair business
practices. They mainly keep apart from the Jewish community, and have
little interest in Panama. They are here to make a lot of money and
get out.' ... 'We are seen as disloyal by many,' complains Moises Mizrachi,
a businessman who heads the Panamanian committee of the B'nai B'rith
Anti-Defamation League ... Explaining his fears, Mizrachi told the Washington
Jewish Week: 'It is certainly true that the Jewish community did
prosper under the dictatorships (from 1969 to the present). The Christian
businesses were largely displaced by Jewish businesses.'"
Royal
Scammer Linked in Banker Fraud Case. Middle
East Times, December 26, 1999
"A complex financial malpractice scandal unfolding in France and
involving Moroccan and Jewish businessman is starting to involve actors
uncomfortably close to the royal family of Morocco. The Moroccan palace
said on December 18 that the royal family had no link with Fouad Filali,
the former husband of a princess, who has been questioned as a witness
to the suspected money laundering case in France."
Embargo
Busting: Serb Economy Stays Afloat with the Help of Criminal Network.
Wall St. Journal, [posted here at bosnet.com],
June 7, 1994
"Yugoslavia's descent into widespread criminality began two years
ago with a pair of textbook pyramid schemes. Jezdimir Vasiljevic,
a man with Elvis sideburns who had earlier brought chess grandmaster
Bobby Fischer out of seclusion, and Dafina Milanovic [Jewish?], a woman
with a taste for wide-brimmed, floppy hats and gaudy gold jewelry, opened
banks in Serbia promising to pay up to 15 percent monthly interest for
foreign-currency deposits. Both were frequently seen hobnobbing with
top Serbian politicians, and their banks' initial interest payments
received sensational coverage in the government-controlled media. The
money flowed in ... Apparently, it also flowed right back out. Though
some was used to pay interest to depositors, most of it went to fuel
the Serbian war effort and to finance companies outside Yugoslavia that
helped flout sanctions. After a year of operation, both banks collapsed,
having defrauded Serbs of at least $2 billion in foreign currency. Mr
Vasiljevic, popularly known as 'Jezda the Boss,' fled to Israel and
later gave an interview to independent Belgrade Studio B television
in which he admitted to smuggling arms for the Yugoslav army."
Ukrainian
Parliament Grants Immunity to Fugitive Former Premiere. Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 13, 1997 [scroll down page]
"Legislators voted 253 to 19 to grant former acting Prime Minister
Yufim Zvyahilsky immunity from arrest if he returns to Ukraine
within two months, Reuters and Russian Public TV reported
on 12 February. Zvyahilsky took refuge in Israel in 1994 after being
accused of embezzling $25 million in public funds. Israel turned down
Ukraine's request for his extradition two years ago. Zvyahilsky has
repeatedly claimed that his political enemies made the embezzlement
charges."
Jewish Bank Figure Detained in Moscow.
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), May 9,
1997 [scroll down JTA page]
"The head of a large Russian bank who is also a prominent member
of the country's Jewish community has been detained in Moscow on suspicion
of embezzling more than $120 million. Arkady Angelevich, who
heads Moscow's Montazhspetsbank and is a member of the presidium
of the Russian Jewish Congress, has been held in prison for two weeks.
Under Russian law, Angelevich can be held for 30 days without being
formally charged. During a search of Angelevich's apartment, officials
with the Interior Ministry allegedly found incriminating documents,
$55,000 in cash and $1 million worth of jewels. Angelevich was arrested
on the way to the airport, where he was planning to leave for Israel,
according to news reports."
The Sour Notes of
Scandal. Warsaw Voice, May 5, 1996
"Prosecutor Krzysztof Wnuk has a bit of work to do. Head of the
investigation into Poland's biggest financial scandal in half a century,
Wnuk must sift through 200 volumes (70,000 pages) of documents. 'This
is the hardest case I've ever been involved with," he says. "It's more
than a single man can handle.' Three colleagues are also on the case,
but the workload is still considerable. The case involves Andrzej
Gasiorowski and Boguslaw Bagsik, owners of the Art-B
company. Gasiorowski is still free, living in Israel, and Bagsik is
in a Warsaw prison, accused of bilking the government out of trillions
of (old) zlotys and then moving to Israel once the investigation against
him was opened."
French
Trial Reportedly Ordered for Soros. Associated
Press [posted at freerepublic.com], December 23, 2000
"An investigating magistrate has ordered the American financier
George Soros and three others to stand trial next year on charges
that they took part in a 1988 insider-trading scheme involving shares
of a French bank, Société Générale, which had been privatized the previous
year, people close to the judiciary said today. Charges against seven
other people were said to have been dropped. It was not immediately
clear what specific charges the four defendants would face. French magistrates
have been investigating the case for 12 years."
Ronson's
Risk. The Independent [Great Britain],
October 18, 2000
"Earlier this year [Jewish London real estate mogul Gerald Ronson]
was voted "property personality of the year" by the readers of magazine
Property Week, despite terrorising scores of hapless surveyors
with his gruff temperament for the past 30 years ... The fruits of his
labours came as standard-issue business tycoon toys: a luxury yacht,
a private jet (with the call sign G-GAEL after his wife Gail, a former
model), a fleet of expensive cars and a giant house. Then, suddenly,
his life was turned on its head when he was implicated in the Guinness
share-rigging scandal and jailed. On release, Mr Ronson faced near-bankruptcy
but he staged a remarkable recovery, summoning a delegation of some
of the world's richest men to bail him out. Today, Mr Ronson is back
at the top of his game with plans to build a £300m skyscraper in the
City of London and develop a network of 20 entertainment complexes across
Europe."
Israel
Refuses to Extradite Alleged War Criminal. Ukrainian
News [posted by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association],
December 2-15, 1998
"Israel, on Dec. 7, refused to extradite an accused war criminal
to face trial in Poland, stating that the statute of limitations had
run out on the case and Canada's Ukrainian community has reacted with
fury. A Dec. 7 Associated Press story carried by several Canadian
newspapers, among them The Toronto Star and The Calgary Herald
reported that Israel's Justice Ministry had refused to extradite Solomon
Morel, who commanded a camp for German prisoners in southern Poland,
allegedly tortured inmates and was considered responsible for at least
1,538 deaths. Poland requested Morel's extradition in April on charges
of beating and torturing prisoners and creating inhuman conditions at
the Swietochlowice camp, which he commanded from February to November
1945, stated AP ... 'The Canadian government can denaturalize
and deport people without even proving that these individuals committed
any crime. But Israel has a statute of limitations for war crimes. Shame
on Canada and shame on Israel,' wrote Mary Radewych of Etobicoke, whose
father Vasyl Odynsky faces deportation even though the government has
not brought any charges of war crimes against him, in a letter to The
Toronto Star."
Kohl's
Stricken Party to Expel Former Minister. The
Independent [Great Britain], January 18, 2000
"The former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's interior minister was
last night set to become the first victim of the widening party financing
scandal, as Christian Democrat leaders called an emergency meeting and
hinted that heads were about to roll. Manfred Kanther, who embodied
the Kohl government's tough stance on law and order, is accused by his
colleagues of having known about the illegal transfer of party funds
to secret Swiss accounts ... Mr Kanther had claimed that the money from
Switzerland and Liechtenstein had come from Jewish benefactors."
Israeli
Banks Under Investigation in France, Jerusalem
Post, December 30, 2001
"Three of Israel's five leading banks are under investigation by
French authorities as part of a larger, ongoing probe of a money-laundering
network between France and Israel. The network used Jewish charitable
institutions and cultural institutions based in France to process illegally-acquired
money. An executive from Bank Leumi France SA is among those under investigation,
alongside workers from Israel Discount Bank and the First International
Bank of Israel according to recent reports. In November French officials
said there were some 80 suspects in the case including six rabbis. Six
people are reportedly already in jail."
11
Convicted in Paris Fraud Believed Here,
Jerusalem Post, January 30, 2002
"Eleven of the 88 people who were found guilty, fined, and sentenced
to up to seven years in jail at the end of the biggest fraud trial in
France are believed to be in Israel. They are among 13 who were tried
in absentia. Another 36 were acquitted. The defendants were convicted
for defrauding banks and insurance companies of 82 million euros in
a case centered on Paris's mainly Jewish garment district. The fraud
involved using fake invoices to secure bank loans in 1996 and 1997.
Wholesalers pretended to sell goods to a retailer in exchange for time
bills. The bills were immediately discounted at a bank. The retailer
then folded or vanished. This apparently simple scheme was complicated
by its size and the involvement of several bankers in France and Israel.
According to the court, accommodation bills and fraudulent checks were
sent from France to several Israeli banks, among them the First International
Bank of Israel ... Several lawyers criticized the heavy-handed attitude
of the investigating judge, Isabelle PrZvost-Deprez. She has been accused
by some of those prosecuted of being motivated by anti-Semitism. According
to a conservative estimate, more than 75% of those found guilty are
Jewish; some hold Israeli citizenship. Haim Weizman, the man
prosecutors said organized the fraud, was sentenced in absentia to seven
years in prison. He is believed to be living in Israel."
SEE ALSO: CRIME --RUSSIAN MAFIA (and General Drugs)
DEPARTMENT