It turns out that those “bombshell” Israeli media reports yesterday about crooked cops and pressure from an Israeli cabinet minister on Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto meant to stop Pinto from helping the FBI nab US Congressman Michael Grimm on campaign fraud charges were all exclusively (or almost exclusively) sourced from the same place – Pinto’s attorneys. In other words, all that information is apparently allegations made by Pinto and swallowed nearly whole by the Israeli media.
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto
All “Bombshell” Evidence Allegedly Showing Kabbalist’s Innocence Apparently Came From Kabbalist Himself
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
It turns out that those “bombshell” Israeli media reports yesterday about crooked cops and pressure from an Israeli cabinet minister on Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto meant to stop Pinto from helping the FBI nab US Congressman Michael Grimm on campaign fraud charges were all exclusively (or almost exclusively) sourced from the same place – Pinto, his attorneys and a sole "witness," Ben Zion Suky, Pinto's close aide and a former pornographer. In other words, all that information is apparently allegations made by Pinto and swallowed nearly whole by the Israeli media.
Today, Pinto’s lawyers followed up on those allegations by offering to give the Israeli government information on these allegedly corrupt police officers in exchange for the government dropping bribery and related charges against Pinto.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch reacted to that by lashing out at Pinto and calling him to be put on trial as the police previously had recommended.
Pinto faces charges for allegedly bribing a top police official and should be tried for that, irrespective of an investigation into Maj. Gen. Menashe Arviv, who allegedly took the bribes, Aharonovitch said.
Aharonovitch pointed out that it is unacceptable for Pinto's lawyers to have announced that Pinto has evidence against the police exists only after the police made their recommendation to put Pinto on trial, and unacceptable for Pinto’s bribery charges to be dropped to get that evidence.
"That is categorically inappropriate. One should not be tied to the other – things must be investigated and prosecuted. The recommendation to try [Pinto] came first. The fact that additional material has appeared and everything is put on hold is fine, but right now I think it is wrong to condition a deal on closing any case [against Pinto],” Aharonovitch reportedly said in an interview with Israel Radio.
The Ministry of Justice is investigating Pinto’s claims that he and an associate, former pornographer Ben Zion Suky, bribed a high-level police official, Maj. Gen. Menashe Arviv, when Arviv was the liaison on the Israel Police in the US.
"He is an experienced officer, and we have not heard his version yet so he can’t be discredited [based on Pinto’s claims alone],” Aharonovitch said.
Arviv heads Lahav 433, the “Israeli FBI.”
The actual FBI was allegedly furious at the Israel Police for interfering with their investigation into Grimm and supposedly sent an agent to Israel this week to turn over recordings and other material against the Israel Police and a cabinet minister.
But the sole source of that claim appears to be Pinto and his attorneys, and there is at this point no way to determine if it is actually true.
Pinto – who makes his living as a kabbalist – is one of the 10 richest rabbis in Israel with a known net worth of tens of millions of dollars.
His charity Hazon Yeshaya took food donated for Holocaust survivors and instead sold it on the black market. The cash and given to the charity’s head employees – and, allegedly, by them to Pinto himself. In other words, Holocaust survivors went hungry and suffered while Pinto and his associates illegally profited.
Pinto’s alleged bribes to Arviv – and to another officer, Ephraim Bracha, who has already been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Ministry of Justice and who was instrumental in exposing Pinto’s alleged bribes – were allegedly given in exchange for information on the Hazon Yeshaya investigation.