Israeli business tycoons invested millions of dollars raised from public stock offerings in investment projects blessed by Sefardi haredi kabbalist rabbis. But the projects failed, costing pensioners and working Israelis millions of dollars. At the same time, these business tycoons donated millions from their companies' coffers to the rabbis' nonprofit organizations, mostly under the guise of feeding and helping the poor. But most of the money went to funding scholarships for yeshiva tuition and only a small percentage went to help poor Israelis.
Israeli business tycoons invested millions of dollars raised from public stock offerings in investment projects blessed by Sefardi haredi kabbalist rabbis. But the projects failed, costing pensioners and working Israelis millions of dollars. At the same time, these business tycoons donated millions from their companies' coffers to the rabbis' nonprofit organizations, mostly under the guise of feeding and helping the poor. But most of the money went to funding scholarships for yeshiva tuition and only a small percentage went to help poor Israelis.
And that percentage is even smaller than The Marker and Ha'aretz report because one of these charities, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto's Shuva Israel, was caught selling food on the gray market and black market that had been donated (or purchased) to feed poor Holocaust survivors. Pinto could then take that money and use it for his own luxury lifestyle without being subject to exposure by the government arm that regulates nonprofits.
Pinto's charities also spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on what reportedly is first class travel for Pinto and his entourage.
Another common questionable behavior of these rabbis is to transfer large amounts of money between their own various charities, apparently as attempts to hide the ultimate use of the money – which is most often related to yeshiva funding and personal enrichment rather than feeding or clothing the poor.
Read it all here.
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