6 More Arrests In Ostreicher Case

Six more Bolivian government officials have reportedly been arrested for allegedly extorting and robbing American haredi businessman Jacob Ostreicher.

Jacob Ostreicher

6 More Arrests In Ostreicher Case
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah,com

Six more Bolivian government officials have reportedly been arrested for allegedly extorting and robbing American haredi businessman Jacob Ostreicher, the Associated Press reports.

Ostreicher, who came to Bolivia to manage a rice farm he owns with Swiss partners, has been imprisoned in La Paz for 18 months without charges. The Bolivian government accused him of possible money laundering and of having an obscure connection to a drug dealer who no longer lives in the country.

Bolivia’s interior minister, Carlos Romero, told reporters today that authorities have made seven total arrests of government officials in the case. He said those arrested include the judge who first ordered Ostreicher jailed and officials working in the state agency that seized 18,000 metric tons of rice from him. A senior official in the ministry of the president was arrested yesterday for allegedly stealing rice confiscated from Ostreicher and selling it.

Ostriecher claims several of the Bolivian government officials now under arrest had tried to extort money from him in return for promises to release him from prison.

Ostreicher was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and has been hospitalized at a La Paz clinic for treatment of that condition and to treat the effects of a hunger strike he took on to protest his incarceration.

Comments

[Shlomo1]

It's probably time now for the people here that were accusing him of being guilty and of exploiting Bolivia to think about apologising.

[David]

Total banana, err..., I mean cocaine republic.

I hope the falsely accused are freed soon.

Meanwhile, don't visit or do business with sh*thole countries such as this.

[dd]

parkinson at 53 ? he's gonna go downhill soon if he does not take his med .
do the bolivian gvt treat medically their inmates fairly , that one in particular ?
he's gonna be in bad shape , prob disabled in a year .

[Maskil]

It's probably time now for the people here that were accusing him of being guilty and of exploiting Bolivia to think about apologising.

Did anyone claim he was guilty? It was postulated that he got into a legitimate business deal with some unscrupulous people, that he ended up at the mercy of the corrupt Bolivian regional authorities, and that he could leave prison and the country at any time if he would "admit guilt" and forfeit his rice - thus coming home in shame having lost the money of his investors as well. The idea was that his continued incarceration was a conscious choice on his part because he wasn't going to come back and face his family and investors empty handed. But I don't remember anyone suggesting, ever (not even people who wrote saying they knew him personally and that he wasn't the most agreeable person) suggesting that he had committed a single crime.

I'm amazed at his resolve, and even more amazed that the tables turned back in his favor. Officials being arrested in Bolivia for corruptively extorting a gringo? I wouldn't have thought it possible. I didn't think he thought it was possible either, I just thought that he found his acccomodations there preferable to returning in shame. But, I guess he didn't just decide to invest in a rice field in Bolivia on a whim; he seems to know a little more than the average gringo ... and a few more influential people as well.

I hope he returns soon and that he is justly compensated.

[Fleishike Kishke]

Did these government officials bring false charges in order to steal his rice? or were the original charges legitimate, and then the govt officials thought it would be a shame to allow all the rice to rot in evidence and so they cooked up a scheme to sell it? From the original stories it seemed that Mr. Osterizer was likely cooking ice not rice.

[dh]

Haha, good one, Fleishike.

I said it the other day and I'll say it again, 'dead man walking.'

Maybe if WSC sees this he'll know what could have been done to him to cause him to present with Parkinson's.

[Fleishike Kishke]

Hi, dh.

[Eli, what me messiah?]

Shlomo1,
Sure, if you give credit to Shmarya for also reporting on this case early, without criticism (another story he vetted), and keeping its profile high, and focusing on the conditions of his detention without charges.
I don't recall a lot of posters calling him guilty here as much as raising questions about Bolivian justice and corruption and some head-scratching about what he had to be thinking to do business there.
What I don't understand is why he is still being held. Are these arrests unrelated to the reasons he was incarcerated without charges? I don't get it, even for a banana republic.

[Shlomo1]

I wasn't criticizing Shmarya but other posters here have intimated that Ostreicher is really guilty of either exploiting the farmers or of being involved in drugs,that he is a typical chareidi who thinks he can scam the system and perhaps deserves what happened.
Shmarya has been very fair
It is quite probable that Ostreicher is a victim of his own naivety naivity

[Isa]

From an earlier poster
""Officials being arrested in Bolivia for corruptively extorting a gringo? I wouldn't have thought it possible. ""

There are two classes in Bolivia, the peasant that is mostly Indian heritage and the mostly Spanish heritage. You might be able to compare the situation here in the USA between White and Black people

[Fleishike Kishke]

People began speculating that the Boro Park Boss exploited the farmers when Osterizer supporters began promoting how much "good" he did for the farmers. People only began speculating about drugs, when it came out that one of the principals on Osterizer's team had a history of drug dealing. Did the "corrupt" Bolivian officials falsely accuse Osterizer of criminal wrongdoing so that they could seize his rice, or did they only try to profit off the rice once he was already taken into custody for other reasons?