Not only did alleged Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty embezzler William E. Rapfogel draw a nearly $500,000 per year salary from the anti-poverty nonprofit, his employment contract had at least one unusual perk – free education for Rapfogel's children.
Metropolitan Council On Jewish Poverty Paid Alleged Embezzler’s Children’s Private Orthodox Day School Tuition
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Not only did alleged Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty embezzler William E. Rapfogel draw a nearly $500,000 per year salary from the anti-poverty nonprofit, his employment contract had at least one unusual perk – free education for Rapfogel's children. Page 6 reports that Rapfogel’s three children’s private Orthodox Jewish day school tuition was paid for by the anti-poverty nonprofit, as well. And with the cost of Modern Orthodox day school tuition in the New York City area often topping $25,000 per year per student, Rapfogel’s tuition benefit was clearly substantial.
Rapfogel and his co-conspirators allegedly stole more than $5 million from the anti-poverty nonprofit in a decades long scheme. Rapfogel allegedly kept at least $1 million of that stolen money for himself.
Merryl Tisch, wife of Loews CEO James Tisch and the chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, is the chairwoman of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. “She would have had to OK [Rapfogel’s] employment contract” and therefore the free tuition benefit, an informed source told Page Six.
The Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver – a close friend of Rapfogel’s and a fellow congregant at the same Lower East Side Orthodox synagogue Rapfogel attends – has yet to be implicated in the scandal.
A portion of the money Rapfogel allegedly stole was allegedly kicked back to politicians via bundled campaign contributions.
Silver not only helped direct millions of dollars of funding to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, he also reportedly got Tisch her Board of Regents position. Silver’s longtime chief of staff is Rapfogel’s wife Judy, who own 1997 city council campaign appears to have vastly overpaid for automobile insurance purchased from the same hasidic-owned company that was kicking back millions of dollars in similar overpayments made by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty to Rapfogel and his co-conspirators.
“It’s all very incestuous,” the Page 6 source reportedly said. “Everybody is scratching each other’s backs.”