Man Sentenced For Laundering Money Through Haredi Charity

David Goldhirsch was sentenced to one year and one day in prison last week after having pleaded guilty in June to owning and operating an illegal money transmitting business, Boyoner Gemilas Chesed.

 

Man Sentenced For Laundering Money Through Haredi Charity
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

David Goldhirsch, one of 46 people arrested in Solomon Dwek’s massive 2009 federal sting known as Operation Big Rig or the New Jersey Sting, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison last week after having pleaded guilty in June to owning and operating an illegal money transmitting business.

Goldhirsch, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, was originally charged with money laundering conspiracy in a 14 point indictment along with Rabbi Lavel Schwartz and Rabbi Mordechai Fish. Both Schwartz and Fish, who are brothers, pleaded guilty and have already been sentenced, Schwartz in December to one year and one day in prison, and Fish in May to 46 months in prison.

Goldhirsch laundered money through a hasidic charity he controlled, Boyoner Gemilas Chesed.

He took a 10 percent commission from Dwek for turning Dwek’s checks – which Goldhirsch was told were from the proceeds of Dwek’s sale of illegal counterfeit designer handbags – into cash.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Dwek told Goldhirsch the money was from the sale of counterfeit handbags.

Approximately three-quarters of all Operation Big Rig defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted, among them New Jersey politicians including a state assemblyman, the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus, and the deputy mayor and council president of Jersey City.

Also among them are five haredi rabbis from New York and New Jersey who have pleaded guilty to money-laundering-related charges, including the Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community, who was sentenced to probation. The longest sentence handed down to any of the rabbis was five years in federal prison.

According to the Associated Press, two of the 46 original defendants were acquitted at trial. Four others had the charges against them dropped.

Two more of the original 46 defendants’ cases are still reported to be pending. Another defendant is a fugitive.

One defendant died a week after the 2009 arrests.

[Hat Tip: Burich.]

Comments

[RebMendel]

My rav says this is how it all started in europe with the germans. Keep your bags packed and always have a few passports in your purse in case you need to go since you never knowwhen the goyim will go meshuga.

[Shmarya]

My rav says this is how it all started in europe with the germans. Keep your bags packed and always have a few passports in your purse in case you need to go since you never knowwhen the goyim will go meshuga.

Posted by: RebMendel | January 08, 2013 at 09:21 AM

Are you trying to say that your rabbi condemned haredi crime, pointing out that it can lead to reprisals?

Or are you saying the prosecution of this man for money laundering is in itself antisemitic?