Yehuda Meshi-Zahav and his brothers are alleged to have misled and deceived donors, and may have pocked millions of dollars in donations.
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav with Japan's ambassador to Israel in May 2011.
Ma'ariv's weekend edition has a long expose in Hebrew on Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, Eidah Charedis' former chief operations officer /street captain who left his anti-Zionist roots after witnessing the aftermath of a terror attack, and ZAKA, the disaster response organization he founded in response.
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav has his own ZAKA organization that is separate from the ZAKA he started years ago, but few people realize this. He and his family raise money for that newer ZAKA but don't tell donors that it is different from the original ZAKA. They get people to donate ambulances and EMT vehicles but don’t actually buy any with the donors’ money, and the donors’ money doesn’t reach the original ZAKA even though Meshi-Zahav still uses the original ZAKA's tax I.D. number. Meshi-Zahav’s ZAKA allegedly has an agreement with the original ZAKA that allows this, but Meshi-Zahav is supposed to give 40% of what his ZAKA raises after expenses to the original ZAKA. However, no money has been given to it by Meshi-Zahav's ZAKA.
The original ZAKA is in extreme financial difficulty. The Israeli government’s investigation into the financial collapse of the original ZAKA and millions of dollars missing from its accounts has revealed a lot of the information Ma’ariv printed. Meshi-Zahav apparently used ZAKA as a personal piggy bank, using its accounts to buy groceries and pay for vacations.
Besides their ZAKA shenannigans, Meshi-Zahav and his brothers are also allegedly involved in criminal activity and misbehavior outside ZAKA. One of the brothers was convicted of casino fraud in Las Vegas. Moshe Meshi-Zahav was arrested in 2003 for molesting minor girls. He preyed on girls from poor families and apparently forced them to perform sex acts for him. The crimes allegedly took place in ZAKA vehicles.