The extremely large bail is very unusual for Israel. Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto and his wife are also forbidden from leaving Israel for (at least) the next six months. The Pintos were caught delivering suitcases full of hundreds of dollars in cash to a senior police official investigating crimes related to Pinto and his charities.
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, right
More information on the arrests of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, who is a great-grandson of the Baba Sali, and his wife has been made public.
The Israeli news website Walla reports that Pinto and his wife delivered suitcases full of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to a senior police investigator. But the top cop had notified his superiors that Pinto was trying to bribe him, and the police allowed the Pintos to keep delivering the bribes as cops documented the Pintos' crimes.
A magistrate yesterday released the Pintos to a very restrictive house arrest – albeit to a mansion worth $12 million and paid for by American Eagle head Jay Schottenstein.
The Pintos had to post 1 million NIS bail each, and are both forbidden from leaving the country for 6 months.
The Pinto's attorney claims the Pintos did nothing wrong, and that the huge cash payments were merely charity given to the officer by the Pinto's charity Hazon Yeshaya so the officer could pay for medical treatment for a member of his family.
Hazon Yeshaya was recently caught selling on the black and gray markets food donated to it to feed elderly Holocaust survivors.
A source close to some of the various scandals swirling around the Pintos tells me that if Pinto is eventually allowed to leave Israel and chooses to return to the United States, where he is based for about six months each year, Pinto will be arrested on American criminal charges.
Related Post: Busted – Pinto And Wife Arrested For Bribery And Money Laundering.
Update 5:08 pm CDT – News video: