Haredi Investors Fear "Illui" Bilked Them Out Of Tens Of Millions Of Dollars In A Madoff-Like Scam

"Illui" especially close to Gerrer hasidim. Haredi victims refuse to cooperate with authorities.

Haredi investors fear 'ilui' lost more than $30m
Nati Toker • Ha'aretz

Ultra-Orthodox investors who placed their money with Asher Shapranovich, the manager of Homesh Hashkaot B'Aliya, are afraid their money has gone down the rabbit hole.

The Haredi Web site Kikar Shabbat reported that Shapranovich admitted to one investor on Monday that all the money had been lost a few months ago.


Shapranovich also said that he had managed a total of $30 million, although his worried investors believe the amount was much greater.

A bunch of disgruntled investors broke into his offices Monday in order to loot property, including computers. Police were called to stop them from making off with Shapranovich's assets.

Shapranovich himself had disappeared about a week ago. According to rumors in the Haredi community, he lost all of his investors' money and fled. Some even suggested he went into hiding after the Tax Authority began investigating his business. But then the self-proclaimed financial genius made a surprise visit to his office yesterday morning. All he would say to soothe worried investors was that he had not fled, and that he would issue a response later in the day.

"I can't provide any further details at the moment," he told TheMarker. "Right now I am speaking with the investors."

Later in the day, between meetings with investors, he told reporters that he had no time for interviews. "I have work to do. I need to see clients."

Shapranovich, who was well-known in the Haredi community, founded his investment firm six years ago and advertised widely in Haredi newspapers. He built himself an image as a financial genius, claiming he had a unique technique of foreign currency investments that guaranteed profit.

One investor said he had enjoyed quarterly yields averaging about 5%. Another told TheMarker that Shapranovich had promised a monthly yield of 1% to investors who demanded bank guarantees, and 6% to those who waived such guarantees.

Haredi investors placed a great deal of trust in Shapranovich. His investment house is named Homesh because he would donate 5% of profits to charity. He was particularly close to the Gur Hassids, and donated substantial sums. He also led an ostentatious lifestyle, and drove a Mercedes.

As far as is known, the Tax Authorities are not investigating Shapranovich, despite rumors. The Tax Authority itself declined to either confirm or deny the claims.

A spokesman for the Tel Aviv District police said they are not investigating the incident. Haredi investors apparently prefer not to let the authorities know the extent of their investments, and have not filed a complaint.

[Hat Tip: Joel Katz.]

Comments

[MisterApikoros]

Hey Shmarya:

While you have absolutely no requirement to be truly "fair and balanced" (as opposed to "fair and balanced like FOXNews), surely there are one or two mitzvahs performed by Haredim. Surely there is one Haredi rabbi who isn't a putz, one Haredi teacher who isn't a child molester, and one Haredi businessman who isn't a crook.

Let's see some stories about an ultra-Orthodox Jew who stood up against the meshugganehs. Actually, I remember you posted one the other day, although his sincerity was doubted.

Then again, maybe they're all a bunch of schmucks...

[harold]

...surely there are one or two mitzvahs performed by Haredim.Surely there is one Haredi rabbi who isn't a putz, one Haredi teacher who isn't a child molester, and one Haredi businessman who isn't a crook

You wont see it here, this is after all an angry anti-semitic board.

[Shmarya]

this is after all an angry anti-semitic board.

Please.

You leave ignorant, stupid, foolish comments for months on end.

You contribute nothing here.

As for finding haredim who do good, why not go read Yeshiva World News or Matzav.com, or VosIzNeais, or any of the dozens of other haredi blogs that primarily report good news about haredim and bad news about non-haredim? They'll make you feel real good, even if a lot of what they publish isn't true.

And you can ignore the haredi criminals treated like royalty by Rebbes and gedolim, the kids molested and abused and the rabbis who cover that up, the rampant poverty and other problems of haredim.

[harold]

You contribute nothing here

If what you mean that I don't bash orthodox judaism then I am guilty as charged.

[Shmarya]

If what you mean that I don't bash orthodox judaism then I am guilty as charged.

No. What I mean is what I wrote. You contribute nothing.

[Yoni]

Shmarya - I could swear that two seconds ago your comment included a concluding sentence, addressed Mr. A, which contradicted the rest of your comment (you told Mr. A something to the effect that "you can't report positive stories if there are none").

Good to see you had enough self-awareness to delete that, but the deleted sentence is in itself telling as to your paranoid mindframe, and as to why this has become nothing more than a backwater hate-blog visited less and less by discerning readers, and consequently - why the blog has become so f**king boring (nothing as boring as an echo chamber), and why you have no prospects of seeing parnassa from the blog and making enough $ to move out of mommy's basement and out of that hell-hole bum-f**k Minnesotta you're stuck in and back to somewhere meaningful in the Jewish world where you so long to be...

[Shmarya]

You rush to judgment. No surprise there.

I deleted it because I thought Mr. A was referring specifically to child abuse, but he wasn't.

So I deleted it.

As for the rest of what you write, it says far more about your lack of mentchlikeit and your ignorance than it does about me or my readers.

[MisterApikoros]

About reading Vosizneias.com:

Yes, I read it, albeit on an irregular basis. What's significant, and what really gets me indignant, is not the news they report, although I agree, they tend to be slanted. What bothers me are the comments by the respondents, which include some of the most idiotic and racist comments I've ever read on ANY blog.

Case in point which got my Jewish up (and actually what got me to this blog): A Connecticut Reformed Jewish rabbi's estate was stolen by Bernie Madoff, and his widow had to sell valuable treasures of Judaica in order to make ends meet. The general response was that it served her right since he was reformed and thus not "really" Jewish and deserved to have been ripped off by Bernie. She might have been a convert; I don't really remember now, and that added fuel to the fire.

I'm not all that big on religion as all of you know, but I did read in the Bible that Jews by choice are to be welcomed.

If there's a Chillul Hashem in the world, that was it.

[MisterApikoros]

To update what I wrote earlier:

The Rabbi's name was Alexander Schindler, who was a leading Reform Rabbi in Connecticut. He died in 2000. His wife, Rhea, who from what I just researched is not a convert (not that it would make any difference) invested the estate with a fund that funneled the money to Madoff.

The chillul Hashem was committed by those arrogant clowns stinking of Schadenfreude.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Is this "Illuy" the Madoffer Rebbe?

[Ben]

Yoni, you stuck up on f*** word. There are hundreds of thousands of word in English. Why do you always return to one 4 letter one? Is it tradition that is holy once established? Which gemora or midrash established it?

[MisterApikoros]

Ben, it's a good, all-purpose word. It can be used as a noun, an adverb, an adjective, a verb, an expletive, as well as many other parts of speech.

There is no other word in the English language quite as versatile.

[MisterApikoros]

The only thing I'd find objectable is his disparagement of Minnesota. I've been to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area many times on business and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful pair of cities, nor a nicer bunch of folks.

[steve]

His investment house is named Homesh because he would donate 5% of profits to charity

Homesh is 20%(1/5), not 5%.