…[A]bout 25 years before a jury found that JONAH had engaged in “unconscionable” business practices, Arthur Goldberg pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy in connection with what the U.S. attorney alleged was a fraudulent scheme of “spectacular” scope, involving bribery and deception related to his work as an underwriter of municipal bonds. And while that case and the lawsuit against JONAH share virtually nothing of substance in common, they both involved Jewish communities with which Goldberg had nurtured ties, ties that those communities likely came to regret.…
Above: Arthur Goldberg
Arthur Goldberg, the co-founder of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality; Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing) – the discredited, supposedly Orthodox, gay-to-straight conversion therapy/reparative therapy that was recently found to have committed consumer fraud – has a long history of shady and illegal behavior, much of it conducted by exploiting Jewish refugees from Russia and neighboring Eastern and Central European countries and using them as cover.
A good rundown of Goldberg's bad behavior written by Hella Winston is published in Tablet Magazine today. Here's a brief excerpt:
…about 25 years before a jury found that JONAH had engaged in “unconscionable” business practices, Arthur Goldberg pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy in connection with what the U.S. attorney alleged was a fraudulent scheme of “spectacular” scope, involving bribery and deception related to his work as an underwriter of municipal bonds. And while that case and the lawsuit against JONAH share virtually nothing of substance in common, they both involved Jewish communities with which Goldberg had nurtured ties, ties that those communities likely came to regret.…
Herman Nadel, a Jersey City accountant and CASE board member at the time, told the paper he himself was unclear about what Matthews & Wright was doing in connection with NAFCU, adding that the Russian émigrés “within [NAFCU] know very little about it. What’s being said is being said in English. I don’t know that they really understand.” When NAFCU was finally shut down, Yaffa Oren, one of its members, said that Goldberg was “using the credit union as a front” for questionable activities” and that efforts to help the Russians were a front. “I don’t think they understand what’s going on,” Oren said.
Goldberg pleaded guilty in 1989 to three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ultimately was forced to pay $100,000 in restitution.…