Chabad Rabbi To Face 17 Criminal Counts

Australian Chabad rabbi Yossi Engel apparently will face 17…

…criminal charges related to defrauding Australia's government.

The Australian Jewish News reports:

Rabbi Engel to face 17 counts
PETER KOHN

ADELAIDE's Rabbi Yossi Engel has been reported on nine counts of false pretences and eight counts of deception in relation to funding applications made by a South Australian Jewish school to the state's Ethnic Schools Board.

Police said that since Rabbi Engel, 41, was put on report on June 3, moves have begun to prepare a prosecution brief and he will be brought before the courts to answer those charges.

A court date will be determined once prosecutors have examined the brief, which can take six to eight weeks.

Police told The AJN they did not find any reason to arrest the rabbi, and preferred to issue a report of his alleged offences to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) office.

Police said that after the DPP's office has assessed a brief of evidence, Rabbi Engel is likely to receive a summons to appear in court for charging.

A 10-month investigation, headed by Detective Senior Constable Stan Tsoulos of the Adelaide Criminal Investigation Branch, which has interviewed more than 50 people, is set to continue, and a second person linked to the case is likely to be reported to the DPP's office next week.

In July last year, two school reports sighted by The AJN, dated 2001 and 2003, both allegedly carried Rabbi Engel's signature as teacher. One of the reports was allegedly co-signed by Rebbetzin Chana Engel as teacher.

Police told The AJN today that the alleged offences "relate to the filling out of forms and applications submitted to the Ethnic Schools Board in order to receive funding".

Rabbi Engel has remained in Adelaide after a protracted row with his former employer, Adelaide Hebrew Congregation, over his termination, which was settled in the synagogue's favour last year when the South Australian Supreme Court ruled that his contract with AHC had ended.

Rabbi Engel first came to Australia from the United States as a Chabad shaliach in the 1980s and worked in Sydney's Chabad community before returning home.

He returned to Australia to begin his job as the AHC's rabbi in 1998.

Previous posts.

Comments

[JK]

He isnt unique. This sort of stuff goes on all the time. I remember in Monsey when 'students' from New Square were getting credit for classes they never too @ Rockland Community College. It's criminal and its people who do this that not only deserve to go to jail, but make the Jewish community look bad. You set yourself high on a perch as 'frummer than thou', you better be able to deliver. Set examples of how to serve G-d, not how to cheat the system

[Yosef ben Matitya]

one deception not mentionned, is them pretending to be jewish, while peddling an alien messianic cult.

[SJ]

why aren't rabbis indicted on criminal charges ever called former rabbis?

[Guilty until proven innocent]

It's the American Way! ....

"Anyone accused of any crime should always be considered Guilty Until Proven Innocent."

[Isa]

Sarcastically

It is only because of anti-semitism that poor Rabbi Engel got charged, Why EVERYBODY does it!How dare they persecute Rabbi Engel.

[MP]

Yosef ben Matitya,
Firstly, I doubt your geirus was kosher. Secondly – on the off chance that it was – chazer is still moist on your lips and you are already making pronouncements about who is "pretending to be Jewish"?

[MP]

I am willing to bet anything 'ben matitya's" hatred of Chabad is very personal. Some shliach probably told him he wasn't really Jewish, or some other such thing. In the end, it's always personal with these people. Sort of like Hitler getting rejected from the Vienna Art School.

[Yochanan Lavie]

MP: How do you Yosef ben M is a convert? And if you do know for sure, our sages warn against embarassing a convert by reminding him of his former life. Is this darchei noam?

[john]

Yochanan:

If you are expecting darchei noam, go to another blog.

What happened down under is a singular chilul Hashem and besmirches the Chabad name, to be sure, but why is there a rush on this blog to defame all of Chabad because of the actions of an individual? We see this practice again and again. Why??

BTW, Yosef, how do you know that the Rabbi is a meshichist? Fundamental Jewish decency (a value of this very blog - cf. "The seal... Is truth) demands that you provide some proof.

[Isa]

To MP and others
While Rabbi Engel is Jewish this Rebbe (idol)worship is not.
IF the Rebbe was simply called a navi (ha navi ha catan)I could accept that

[Yochanan Lavie]

Come to think of it, I met Rabbi Engel's father. He was a Rav in a shul in my town (not the one I attend regularly). He was a nice man, and mentioned his son in Austrailia. However, he did mutter the "Yechi" prayer after davening and bentsching. (The shul is MO, so he didn't "sell" his messianism outright). This has no bearing, of course, on his son's guilt or innocence. But Yosef's instincts were correct.

[Inocent untill proven guilty]

As someone who knows Rabbi Engel very well, and the siuation in Adelaide, people should not jump to conclusions. Most of these allegations have been trumped up, by rabbi Engels enemys. Mr Bulafy, and Sonei Yisroel, who is a Mumar Lehachis, and and the Treasurar of the AHC, while Rabbi Engel was rabbi. I know Rabbi Engel is a Yiras Shamayim, he has alot of support from ppl in Adelaide, and people sitting in NY, blogging should not be jumping to conclusions about a Rabbi in Australia, just because he is a Lubavitcher.

[Isa]

Australia is not some third world country with 'kangaroo courts'.He is guilty all right. He cannot escape for they check passports on the way out, (unless he charters a black market sailboat.)
With my past company I have been there a few times for about 12 weeks total.
These Socialists take thievery from the State very seriously, they very literally stamped out the massive under reporting of income by businesses. As I recall there was some Jewish millionaire (double digit type) who didn't report massive income and got many years in prison. His wife wasn't put in prison because they felt she was too fragile (the Aussies are the bleeding hearts type) As I recall this Jewish couple was 'black hat'(anything right of M.O)
Oh I forgot! for the whiner that complains about high USA taxes, in Australia there is a hidden VAT of ~25% on all goods except for food and clothing.

[baruch levy]

Dear Guilty until proven innocent,
You are quite right, a man is innocent until provent guilty. Mr Engel (who lost his rabbinic title a long time ago)has only one enemy- justice. Leave other people who work for the community out of the blame game. Blaming people other than himself for his predicament is unfair, and if you had the courage to face the truth, which you will do once there is a court apearance and a trial, you will eat your words. Rabbonim that try and buck the system will be brought down, regardless of who they are.

[pushkina]

isa,

it is NOT a hidden VAT of %25...it is a VERY OPEN goods and services tax of %10 on everything, except food, medical services, which are subsidised by the state anyway as we have universal health care, as well as a 'semi-mandatory' private health care system for anyone over a certain income level ( i think that it is about A$75,000. now, maybe more; since the election they have been talking about changing the baseline rates). when i came here from the US i couldn't believe the income tax rate: %48 (each of us, husband and wife, as there is no joint filing)because we were each in the 'upper' tax brackets: A$50,000.00. we also pay 'luxury taxes' on consumer goods deemed to be luxuries, i.e. foreign cars, now up to ridiculous rates: a BMW 316 in the US, used to be about US$25-30,000.00; here the comparable car is now up to A$65,-70,000.00; a volvo is over A$100,000.00 money paid to shuls, schools and/or charities as memberships or anything that could be seen as purchasing a service is not deductible AND subject to GST---so no big synagogue fundraising dinner dances with dedication books: the cost (and really actual cost) of the dinner is separate and GST attracting; the message in the dedication book is considered a paid advertisement and subject to GST but not deductible as a cost of doing business.

most synagogues here (except all the non-orthos) are staffed by lubavitchers, as they don't cost much. at least up front in salary; the true costs have been hidden, as the lubies take over schools, education, monopolize kashrut, mikvaot, and tell the folks (who already don't know much of anything) that they have a monopoly on Truth, and his name is THE Rebbe.

there has been a LOT of financial corruption here, in the name of lubie personalities (remember joe gutnick? he had to sue his own brother in law, the 'head' of the 'yeshiva' here in sydney for repayment of millions of dollars in loans.)

it is very sad here, the state of jewish life; watching how Jewish life is constantly stunted by these jokers.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Pushkina: Too bad, because I have always fantasized about chucking it all and moving Down Under. I will stick with the USA.

Presumption of innocence is NOT absolute, or else nobody could EVER be charged with a crime. And a blog is not a court of law. People have a right to an opinion.

Also, I bet the same people who talk like Johnny Cochrane and the ACLU whenever a black hat is charged with a crime, don't presume innocence when a "shvartze" (sic) commits a crime.

But I could be wrong.

[the baker]

The Magic Pudding-
Take one Chabad Rabbi, add tax fraud, money laundering, social security fraud, grant fraud, kashrut supervision fraud, traffic violation frauds and a few others, and voila, a perfectly baked "allegation cake".
Add courts, police investigations, kashrut investigations, and an incompetent beth din, and you have a perfect storm. A crook rabbi protected by a crook system. But the State system aint crook and they will get their man. We all just need to be patient..

[Aussie Oliver Sholom]

Hey "Inocent untill proven guilty", why don't you change your name to "Automatically innocent if the felon wears a black hat"???

It's another case of "G-d's ganavim". "He was so holy, so pious, so yiras shamayim" UNTIL HE GOT CAUGHT. Tell me, how many supporters does he have, apart from fellow chabadniks or from people he "helped" through their conversions? I know the real figure, so I'm waiting to hear how many "a lot" is in your mind. Let's face it, the guy can hardly scrape a miyan together....

The guy is guilty and he knows it. Deep down, you know it too. Imagine that he isn't a chabdnik - it might help your perspective. This wont go away without some chabadnik higher up the schnorrer ladder paying the Australian government back for what he STOLE.

And then there were the food outlets and bakeries that were under his hechsher that he didn't vist for 4 YEARS, during which time their ownership and staff changed.

Trumped-up charges? You wish....

[William Dwek]

The Swine Flu is common in PIGS.

This is a clear indication that it is the Dayanim – ‘Judges’ - and ‘Rabbis’ of today who are the PIGS and swines.

They twist and use the Torah for their own power and commercial benefit.

They are corrupt. And they are interested in only one thing:

MONEY.

Not the Torah.

[William Dwek]

When ‘dayanim’ and ‘rabbis’ use the Torah for their own power and commercial profit, this is the behaviour of a swine i.e. a Pig.

No other ‘rabbi’ will ever act against another ‘rabbi’ - even when he knows his colleague is clearly desecrating the Torah. Each rabbi is only worried about losing his own position.

Therefore, the ‘rabbi’ and ‘dayan’ will never effect justice. And he will never truly stand for the Torah or the Honour of Hashem. His pocket will always prevail.

The Torah must never be used for commercial gain and profit. Am Yisrael can only be lead by those who have the necessary love and respect of Hashem and the Torah.

[William Dwek]

1. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may use lies. They turn the innocent into the guilty, and the guilty, become the innocent. They will not hesitate to tell lies in the Synagogue.

2. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may steal. They steal and siphon off money for themselves, from the community and individuals.

3. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may shame a Jew in public, even repeatedly. This is one of the most vile acts of murder in Jewish law – and they know this.

4. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ will not hesitate to use Lashon Hara - the ‘Evil Tongue’ - to suit his own ends. Slander and gossip. This too, is one of the worst acts of murder in Jewish Law. Their slander is never challenged by the community, because they hold positions of power. And the slander may begin with the Rebbetzin herself.

5. The ‘dayanim’ and ‘rabbis’ worship idols and other gods. Their only god is Money. Especially the ‘Dayanim’ – the ‘Judges’ who sit on a Beit Din. They only care about their high incomes and retirement packages. They have little or no love for the Torah or Hashem.

In the case of Lubavitch/Chabad, all their rabbis are carrying out a form of Avodah Zarah – strange worship. They are using mediation and intercession. This is completely forbidden, and against the Torah. We are only allowed to pray to Hashem, directly ourselves.

6. When the NAME of Hashem has been taken in Vain – repeatedly - by reshaim, the ‘rabbi’ will turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the

CHILLUL HASHEM.

This is the abhorrent behaviour of a Pig.

This is an extremely severe and dangerous situation.

There is NO forgiveness for this evil sin and aveirah.

7. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may also offer large bribes, tell lies and bring False Witnesses – when he in fact has committed the crime. These are heinous acts of the most despicable kind. This is especially vile when the ‘dayan’ is sitting on a ‘Beit Din.’

8. The ‘rabbi’ may commit adultery. And when he gets divorced, he may spread slander about his own ex-wife, blackening her name – when in fact he was at fault.

9. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may also desecrate Shabbat – if it suits him. He will use physical violence to assault another Jew or Jewess at any time. This evil and venomous behaviour is 100% against the Torah.