Met Council Hasidic Embezzler Gets Better Plea Deal Terms

Joseph “Yossi” Ross, the first person to plead guilty in the long-running Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty embezzlement scam, has renegotiated his plea deal in a bid to keep him out of state prison.

 

 

Met Council Hasidic Embezzler Gets Better Plea Deal Terms
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Joseph “Yossi” Ross, the first person to plead guilty in the long-running Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty embezzlement scam, has renegotiated his plea deal, the New York Post reported.

Ross, the Met Council’s former insurance broker, pleaded guilty in December 2013 to grand larceny and money laundering in the first degree. He conspired with the Met Council’s former CEO William E. Rapfogel and others to steal at least $9 million from the New York City Jewish community’s anti-poverty agency.

Ross is a leading member of the Breslov hasidic community and one of its most prominent financial supporters.

Rapfogel is a leading figure in the Lower East Side’s Orthodox community. He pleaded guilty after Ross did and is now serving a 3 1/3 to 10 years in a New York State prison.

Ross’s original plea deal mandated that Ross repay more than $1.5 million and serve 18 months in prison.

But Ross’s attorney, Ben Brafman  – who is also an Orthodox Jew – was able to renegotiate the deal with New York State’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, which is prosecution the cases.

Yesterday, Ross was allowed to re-plead to third degree money laundering and larceny. That allows Ross to serve his prison time in a city jail rather than a much harsher state prison.

Ross is due to be sentenced March 9th.

The Met Council never recovered from the Rapfogel scandal and is reportedly in process of liquidating, parceling out its various programs to other nonprofits so it can permanently close its doors, the New York Daily News reported last month.

Related Posts:

All Met Council/Rapfogel/Ross Embezzlement Scam Posts.

[Hat Tip: The Lion.]

Comments

[Nussi]

Maybe some day SR will come out of the closet and let us know why he hates orthodox Jews so much. Could it be because he feels guilty for abanding it and knocks it every chance he gets to justify his actions

[jancsibacsi]

Pointing out their faults does not mean he hates them,just the opposite he wants them to be better meaning likes them.

[Roy Lassiter]

Nussi:

Get a life.

Stop pretending that there are two sets of laws: One for "Orthodox" Jews and one for everyone else.

I, for one, am a Shomer Torah and Mitvos Jew, and I do not object to identifying the criminals that exist in the Frum Jewish communities.

[Heblew]

Maybe Shmarya will come out of the closet one day and reveal himself to be a Haredi Jew. The blog was just a facade to cover up his extremist tendencies.

[Nussi]

Sr is right to identify the criminals but not right to ridicule the orthodox every chance he gets . Why did sr have to mention that his attorney was orthodox .also mr shomer Torah and mitzvahs do you agree with sr when he ridicules the orthodox for the gidorim they try to implement .and other restrictions . Sr started out exposing criminals among us .which is very commendable .Now blog has become a muck raking sewer ridiculing frum Jews .Most of his stories are just to show Jews in a bad light and nothing to do with criminal activities

[H]

Nussi...it's a bit like the story of the three wise Rabbis - see, hear and speak no evil!

or the 3 year old sticking his fingers in his ears and closing his eyes shouting nyah nyah nyah.

And that's how most of the Hareidim are viewed - as ignorant, petulant infants such as yourself, who cannot see the wood for the trees.

[noname]

Nussi,

"Sr is right to identify the criminals but not right to ridicule the orthodox every chance he gets"

What you don't get is the reason that the community has so many criminals in the first place is because the regular non-criminal "bad" stuff is what eventually leads to the entitlement attitude and lack of understanding that anything someone frum does is wrong. This eventually leads to criminality which is why the frum object so much - we are at a point where many of the people don't even understand what is wrong with the criminals' behavior.

In such situations the only way to hope for change is to address the underlying cause even when they are "gedarim" that you claim ore good. So many of those are responsible for the criminality that ensues.

1. lack of secular or trade educationa "geder" leading to lives of fraud to survive

2. requirement of extreme modesty rules far in excess of the shulchan aruch aka "geder" leaing to criminal vioence aginst "imoodest" women and leading to various stunted emotional browth that in part leads to molestation....

[noname]

corrected last line:

levels of stunted emotional growth that seems to fuel some of the unnecessarily high rates of molestation.

and there's more...

[Kosher Ham]

@jancsibacsi: I agree with you 100%. The Chareidi community has to learn "dina d'malchusa dina". Don't try to rationalize illegal & criminal behavior. A frum Yid should behave beyond reproach at all times. Some people have issues walking the straight & narrow. Those people end up getting their stories posted here.

I knew Yossi Ross personally, but have been out of touch with him for at least a decade.

[flatearth]

For some reason, the more extreme the religion, the more screwed up the person.

You don't need a God, minister, rabbi, priest, prophet to lead a moral self sufficient life.

[EducatedJew]

nussi,

if you are an orthodox jew and care about the people this organization serves, why would you take money from a criminal who tries to destroy the organization by stealing from it?

does that not matter to you?? now one can say everyone deserves fair representation, sure, but lawyers have the right to reject clients.