Chabad’s Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Aronow stole millions of dollars from donations earmarked for Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl charity, a subsidiary of the Chabad Youth (Tzach) nonprofit Aronow headed. Chabad Youth serves as the central Chabad-Lubavitch organization in Israel, and (at least on paper) hundreds of Chabad emissaries in Israel work at its largess. Aronow also received almost $2 million in salary he failed to declare as income and used fraud to get large amounts of money from the Education Ministry – money Aronow then stole.
Above: Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Aronow
Top Chabad Rabbi In Israel Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Chabad’s Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Aronow (also spelled Aharonov) stole millions of dollars from donations earmarked for Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl charity, a subsidiary of the Chabad Youth (Tzach) nonprofit Aronow headed. Chabad Youth serves as the central Chabad-Lubavitch organization in Israel, and (at least on paper) hundreds of Chabad emissaries in Israel work at its largess. Aronow also received almost $2 million in salary he failed to declare as income and used fraud to get large amounts of money from the Education Ministry – money Aronow then stole.
Aronow was charged with fraud under aggravating circumstances; fraud; breach of trust; falsifying corporate documents; and using fraud, guile and subterfuge in order to evade taxes.
Earlier this month after more than half a decade of stalling, Aronow pleaded guilty. He was able to delay so long without trial or entering a plea because Chabad exerted intense pressure on Israeli politicians and law enforcement to drop the case.
After the plea was entered, Chabad continued to lobby to protect Aronow – this time to argue that he should not be imprisoned. Chabad did so based on the position of the late Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who argued Jews should never allowed another Jew to be imprisoned unless that Jews poses a clear and present physical danger to other Jews or to wider society.
But Chabad’s intense lobbying effort appears to have failed.
On February 1, 2016 Aronow will enter prison to serve a 2-year prison sentence (less the 16 days he already served in detention). That will be followed by one year of probation. Aronow was also fined $1.5 million, and in a separate civil agreement that took place before his guilty plea, Aronow also agreed to pay 2.5 million shekels (about $644,000) in back taxes, Globes reported.
The fraud took place from 1999-2007. Even though the allegations against him were made public eight years ago, Aronow still serves as Chairman of Chabad Youth and of related charities, including one that claims to help children from the Chernobyl region and another which claims to help children of fallen IDF soldiers and children of terror victims.
According to the indictment against the Aronow, Chabad Youth’s activities were conducted on two levels, one open and visible with eight official bank accounts, and the other hidden and concealed. That concealed level had two illicit bank accounts controlled by Aronow, one under the name of the "Society for the Encouragement of Heroes' Families” and the second a “Chabad Children of Chernobyl" account.
Much of the donation money Aronow stole was raised in the US and ended up in the “Chabad Children of Chernobyl" bank account he controlled.
To keep his scheme going, Aronow ordered Chabad Youth’s comptrollers and accountants to create a set of false books that would be open to government tax authorities while the actual books would be hidden.
For five of the years the scheme was in place, to avoid paying taxes Aronow claimed to be working for free when he was in fact being paid.
Screenshot from Chabad.org taken today at approximately 1:00 pm US Central Time. Please click to enlarge:
A PDF file of the entire Chabad.org listing, retrieved today just before 1:00 PM US Central Time:
Tzerei Agudat Chabad H.Q. staff list retrieved 11-29-2015
The International Conference of Chabad Emissaries group photo taken in Brooklyn earlier this month:
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[Hat Tip: Joel Katz.]