Thirteen people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel were arrested this morning and are now facing federal fraud charges.
NBC NY reports:
Fifteen people in two large Hasidic communities in New York are facing federal fraud charges early Thursday, NBC 4 New York has learned.
Law enforcement sources say that more than a dozen of the suspects have been arrested after early-morning raids in Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, an Orange County village with a large Orthodox Jewish community.
FBI agents also served several search warrants in the two areas. Sources say they also seized 23 properties worth a combined $50 million in the two communities.
Sources say the suspects are charged with mortgage fraud welfare fraud, sources say.
The suspects are set to appear in federal court in White Plains later Thursday.
More details of the investigation are expected to be released at a news conference Thursday at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in White Plains.
I'm hearing (but can't yet confirm) this is a complex mortgage fdraud scheme linked primarily to one extended Satmar family.
[Hat Tips: Dr. R-F, The Lion, etc.]
Update 9:32 am CST – Behadrei Haredim is reporting that it is indeed primarily one family – the extended family of Abraham Rubin.
Rubin tried to bribe the victim not to testify in the Nechemyah Weberman child sex abuse case.