Top Prosecutor In Kabbalist’s Bribery Case Steps Down After AG Overrules Decision To Indict

The seasoned prosecutor with much experience prosecuting fraud cases is vehemently opposed to giving Pinto a deal and has now stepped down from the case rather than participate in possibly giving him one.

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto

Top Prosecutor In Kabbalist’s Bribery Case Steps Down After AG Overrules Decision To Indict
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com

Eli Schwartz, the prosecutor handling the bribery case against Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto and a senior Israel Police commander, has reportedly been ordered not to indict Pinto because Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein wants to give Pinto immunity or a sweetheart plea deal in exchange for testimony against senior police officials.

Schwartz – a seasoned prosecutor with much experience prosecuting fraud cases – is reportedly vehemently opposed to giving Pinto a deal and stepped down from the case rather than participate in possibly giving him one, Israel Radio reported this afternoon.

Pinto and his wife were caught bribing a senior police official, Ephraim Bracha. But Bracha was working with top police brass and the bribe – a suitcase full of cash delivered by Pinto’s wife – was videoed. Pinto and his wife were arrested and his wife tried to commit suicide shortly afterward.

Much later, Pinto’s attorneys told the AG that another top cop, Menashe Arviv, had been bribed by Pinto. They offered to provide evidence of those bribes (and perhaps bribes to other police officials) in exchange for immunity for Pinto.

Like many other professionals who have looked at this case, Schwartz appears to believe that Pinto is a criminal who needs to be prosecuted, regardless of whether or not Arviv accepted any bribes.

Arviv, meanwhile, resigned from his top police job yesterday. At a press conference, he bitterly criticized the AG and the Ministry of Justice for failing to hear his side of the story before moving to grant Pinto immunity or giving him a sweetheart plea deal. Arviv said he had offered weeks ago to be questioned and to provide a statement to police, but no one from the AG’s office or any investigating body had yet contacted him.

Pinto, the seventh richest rabbi in Israel with a net worth in the tens of millions of dollars, is connected to top politicians and business leaders.

Several years ago, his Hazon Yeshaya charity stole large scale food donations earmarked for Holocaust survivors and sold the food on Israel’s grey market. The charity’s lay leaders allegedly pocketed some of the cash and gave the rest to Pinto for his personal use.

The government agency that monitors and regulates charities lashed out at Hazon Yeshaya when the fraud was discovered but failed to turn their investigation file over to police and prosecutors, despite the legal mandate to do so.

But the scandal became public anyway and police launched an investigation.

Pinto’s bribes were allegedly paid to get inside information on the progress and scope of that police investigation.

Comments

[S M L]

He needs to be made an example of. Nail the cops some other way if need be but put this black hat in prison.

[anchell]

the moral integrity of our judicial and police forces are paramount to maintaining any semblance of a Democratic process. It is with this in mind that police, presecutors and judges must assuredly be the highest and most principled amongst us. To not be so, would result in tyranny and choas and a return to feudalism. This is a double standard, but a necessary one.

[Rodin]

It's pathetic that in this age of science and advancement, there are still people (some of them very successful in business)who believe in the power of hocus-pocus, from 'mystics', 'kabbalist', and 'holymen'.
I hope they really stick it to this fraud.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

he must have eaten something really bad, looks like he is about to thwow up! no?