Scammer
Banned
[video]http://www.wpix.com/videobeta/54cf600a-f866-4e90-9ecb-9550f354400e/News/Holocaust-Reparations-Scam[/video]
NEW YORK —
Heartless employees of a group in charge of administering reparations to Nazi Holocaust victims, instead siphoned millions into their own accounts, as well as to ineligible applicants, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Over the past 16 years, employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany stole a shocking $42.5 million out of money that the German government put aside for survivors of Nazi atrocities during World War II.
"It's disgusting, it's disgusting that anyone would steal and certainly on this issue," said Gregory Schneider, executive vice president of the Conference.
Five of the accused, working out of Manhattan, were supposed to be identifying eligible applicants and approving them for two different reparation funds. To qualify for the Hardship Fund, eligible applicants must have been alive (or in utero) during World War II, and displaced by the Holocaust. Applicants who survived Nazi persecution and currently make less than $16,000 annually, could qualify for the Article 2 Fund.
However, the defendants, seventeen in all, falsified marriage and identification documents in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and approved phony applications for more than 4,000 people during a 16-year stretch.
According to the prosecutor, the defendants also duped applicants into giving up their information, convincing them they were eligible for reparations, then sharing the funds amongst themselves.
"We have never seen applications like these, when we saw two of them in two weeks we knew there was something going on," said Schneider, "these people who suffered in concentration camps and ghettos deserved better, and we will not be deterred from our mission."
All 17 defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
NEW YORK —
Heartless employees of a group in charge of administering reparations to Nazi Holocaust victims, instead siphoned millions into their own accounts, as well as to ineligible applicants, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Over the past 16 years, employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany stole a shocking $42.5 million out of money that the German government put aside for survivors of Nazi atrocities during World War II.
"It's disgusting, it's disgusting that anyone would steal and certainly on this issue," said Gregory Schneider, executive vice president of the Conference.
Five of the accused, working out of Manhattan, were supposed to be identifying eligible applicants and approving them for two different reparation funds. To qualify for the Hardship Fund, eligible applicants must have been alive (or in utero) during World War II, and displaced by the Holocaust. Applicants who survived Nazi persecution and currently make less than $16,000 annually, could qualify for the Article 2 Fund.
However, the defendants, seventeen in all, falsified marriage and identification documents in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and approved phony applications for more than 4,000 people during a 16-year stretch.
According to the prosecutor, the defendants also duped applicants into giving up their information, convincing them they were eligible for reparations, then sharing the funds amongst themselves.
"We have never seen applications like these, when we saw two of them in two weeks we knew there was something going on," said Schneider, "these people who suffered in concentration camps and ghettos deserved better, and we will not be deterred from our mission."
All 17 defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
