New York, NY – Sources within New York’s Orthodox Jewish community say an effort is underway to raise over $3M to put towards restitution so that the former head of the Met Council William Rapfogel might receive a lighter prison sentence.
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NYDAILYNEWS.com (http://bit.ly/1kPUkFS) reports that Rapfogel, who stands accused of bilking more than $7M from Met Council over the course of twenty years in an insurance scam, is expected to agree to a plea arrangement shortly after Passover that will likely land him in prison for several years.
Sources within the Orthodox Jewish community say the ongoing efforts to raise money for Rapfogel is a soft one, and more or less just a communal venture aimed at helping a man has given so much to the community.
One source said, “It’s a communal thing. No one is declaring he’s innocent or being wrongly targeted. But he built a career of good relationships and doing things for people.”
Despite Rapfogel’s longstanding friendship with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a spokesman for Silver denied any involvement by the speaker in raising money for his friend.
Why doesn’t he sell his house and other assets to pay back what he stole? Why does the community have to pitch in?
the money for restitution should come out of Rapfogel pocket. let him sell his house or whatever. The 3 million should be donated to the charities he stole from
I don’t understand. What is the money for……to bribe a judge?
Of course, it’s because of his great works, not because he illegally funneled money to politicians.
Btw, I can get u a bridge.., wholesale. Barely used. Seriously… 100%!
What a nice thing to do before Pesach, and such a great lesson to teach our kids and grand kids. after all the Haggadah didn’t tell us to beat up the rashah.
Help the poor who need this money His friends want to help him because they are all involved in money theft All of them get raises every year but the poor get almost nothing as prices go up every year and no politician is interested to fight for more money for the poor The value of the social security check goes down as the dollar is worth less .It doesn’t even pay for rent any more
לא תגנוב נאמר בהעשרות הדברות אצל לא תנאוף! הוא גנב מאות אלפים השייכים לעניי ישראל הש”י
He helped a lot of people true. But he hurt a lot of people as well because of his huge ego and excessive greed. The huge salary he commanded was not enough to satisfy his needs? He had to concoct schemes to steal money as well? Couldn’t he just be grateful and show Hakaros Hatov to Hashem for the Parnasah and Mazel Hashem bestowed on him and be satisfied with that? How many people did he take down with him? Will he be helping to bail them out as well? How many families were destroyed by his greed? Can these friends right these house of cards? Or is it only Willy they care about?
What lesson do we really teach our children? If you are a thief but you are a nice thief, with lots of friends, they will bail you out of trouble. I would rather teach my children “DA Lifnei mi Atah omed”. And ” v’shivisi eschem l’negdi tamid”. We were given laws to follow. They apply to ALL of us. Not just the less fortunate or the not so wealthy with less prestigious jobs or those with less Yichus or those who are not Rabbonim, etc!
If a person makes a mistake we should role up our sleeves to help them. This was no mistake. This was a well oiled operation.