Trenton, NJ – A Brooklyn, New York, man was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for crossing state lines as part of a plan to violently coerce a recalcitrant husband to grant his wife a religious divorce, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
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Moshe Goldstein, 32, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to an information charging him with traveling in interstate commerce to commit extortion. Judge Wolfson imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On Oct. 9, 2013, Moshe Goldstein and a group of conspirators – including his brother Avrohom Goldstein, 36, his father, Jay Goldstein, 61, David Hellman, 33, Simcha Bulmash, 32, Binyamin Stimler, 40, Sholom Shuchat, 31, all of Brooklyn, and Ariel Potash, 42, of Monsey, New York – traveled from New York to a warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, with the intent of forcing a Jewish husband to give his wife a “get,” a document which, according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce.
During his plea hearing, Moshe Goldstein admitted that when he and the other conspirators arrived at the warehouse, they met with an individual who, unbeknownst to them, was an undercover FBI agent posing as the “husband’s” brother in law. They discussed a plan and prepared to confine, restrain and threaten the victim.
The group was then arrested by a team of FBI agents and charged by criminal complaint – along with rabbis Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood, New Jersey, and Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey – in connection with the scheme.
Moshe Goldstein also admitted that on Aug. 22, 2011, he and others went to a residence in Brooklyn where they restrained, assaulted and injured another recalcitrant husband and his roommate in an attempt to extort a divorce from the husband.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Wolfson sentenced Moshe Goldstein to serve two years of supervised release.
Avrohom Goldstein, Hellman, Bulmash, Potash and Shuchat each pleaded guilty to one count of traveling in interstate commerce to commit extortion. Hellman and Bulmash are scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 17, 2015. Avrohom Goldstein, Potash and Shuchat are scheduled for sentencing Nov. 19, 2015. Wolmark, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce to commit extortion, is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 14, 2015.
Epstein, Jay Goldstein and Stimler were all convicted at trial on April 21, 2015. Epstein, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 15, 2015. Stimler and Jay Goldstein, both convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping, are scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 15, 2015 and Dec. 16, 2015, respectively.
What is 48 months after reducing for “good behavior” etc?
Federal sentences do not work that way. He will serve almost the entire 48 months.
From now on. Those Hisbands who decide to Not give a Get for some reason. Will have a free ride.
Now his wife (and the wives of his co conspirators) is a ‘Aguna’, who will force him to give her a ‘get’ ? Or maybe Rabbi Epstien or Rabbi Wolmark can give her a heter to date other men while he is away ?
It is time to let the courts with independent rabbinical supervision legally force a get if the man refuses and rather wants to abuse his wife. It is a crime to abuse another person and it’s both sides that have legal rights that should be backed up by legal force if there is no other way. Why should jewish women continue to suffer? Why?
this is outrageous sentence for a plea – they did this to help -yes they were wrong but way too harsh
Fantastic news! Four years is a bit low, but still fair for the crimes he committed. Of course, if people would move passed bronze age superstition where women were considered property and need to be “released” by their husbands, we would not have this problem in the first place. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Goldstein, Hellman, Bulmash, Potash and Shuchat were all stooges & nebachs that need $. while epstien & yomark have deep pockets 4good & can afford good representation r laughing all the way 2the bank- these $ nebachs r paying the REAL PRICE.
I don’t quite get our plea-bargaining system; it lets criminals get away with unjustifiably light sentences. Example: four years for the crimes of such degree of violence! Still, I will think of it as glass half full; at least he got something. I hope that scoundrel Epstein gets full measure.
I don’t know all the men involved, but from one that I do, I can only assume that he would never have gotten involved in attempted “extortion” had he not believed that the person they were “extorting” was immorally withholding the get. So their sin was that they believed the loshan hora, and were prepared to act on it, without verifying the accusations as is required by halacha – kabalas loshan hora.
Nevertheless, I think they were also suckered into following poor legal advice by pleading guilty to extortion. If someone steals my wallet, it is not a crime of extortion for me to use force to get it out of him. Neither is it a crime of extortion to use force to get a person to release property that belongs to a third party, even if a person is hired for doing it. Most of these men were suckered into using force to help a person get what they thought was rightfully theirs. Yes they made a mistake, but that’s not a crime of extortion.
The first thing is nobody forced these jews to get involved in ”gittin” there are other ways to make a living without doing things beyond the law of the country that they live in.#2 a bes din operates only as an arbitrator between parties.Thats all of the power it has.It cant force anything on the parties involved, they have agreed to arbitration.
After listening to the YouTube recordings of the FBI agents crying to Epstien and Wolmark about their sad situation I come to the following conclusion.
Epstein messed up by not doing his homework regarding the whole case, however the feds really played them well, listening to this so called chained woman (FBI) crying away almost made me cry too.
They threw in Kidnapping charges just to make a case out of it. The Feds know good and well that the whole Get problem is a yiddisha problem. I am not justifying violence, however this is a Jewish problem, the secular laws do not help a chained wife, in Israel men get arrested for not giving a get.
Let the court decide on all these goons. My opinions about more or less in their sentences won’t affect anything.
Some commenters here have agendas. #9 , for instance. displayed some honesty. Marriage is all about two people loving each other, building a home and family. Divorce is all about hate, revenge, and victory. Batei Din and courts are arenas where the competitive sport gets played. It leaves those who work those systems (court – lawyers, B”D – toanim and dayanim) with the money, while the warring parties either win or lose, but eventually lose anyway. Knowing firsthand, as well as from the experience of others, the stats are about 50-50. This includes who is “right”, who committed the actions that destroyed the marriage, who deserves the kids, money, house, etc. Men are apt to use their get-giving halachic position for leverage. Women are apt to use various other tools (reports of domestic violence, accusations of child abuse, spreading false stories, parental alienation, etc.) to their advantage. Truth, integrity, midos tovos, basic menchlichkeit, etc. are in high demand and low supply.
If people could only agree to disagree and handle divorce nicely.
to all those bashing these guys just stop for a moment and think it it was your daughter suffering. Just pause and think what you might do.
Who’s going to support the wives and children of these men?
so true – the fbi’s job is to root out evil people not to create setups so decent people screw up
The whole divorce system in our circles is a big shame and needs to be changed.
Why is it so difficult to part ways peacefully and just call it a “mismatch” ? Especially by chasidim where it isn’t the norm to date (only by a second Shidduch for some reason) it is so easy for a mismatch to occur. On average a chassidisha shidduch takes around 24 hours from B’show to L’chaim which is extremely reckless in my opinion. The same person will take a month of Sunday’s to make a decision on a much smaller topic (when he buy an Esrog or leases a car, etc) I feel that Shidduchim are locked in far to quick and not thought through rationally. Not for nothing do we have so many divorces lately especially by young couples.
If people start changing their attitude towards divorces we won’t need the services that these rabbis provided. Next time you hear someone got divorced the next question does not have to be, why, who is at fault, who is the crazy one, who was mean to whom, who is the crazy one? etc. Just class it as a simple mismatch or an oversight that should’ve never happened from the “get go” no pun intended.
If parents would make sure that their kids shidduchim are done with more “Yishuv Hadaas” and not in a pressured manner you will all see the divorce rate drop and more happier and compatible couples around. Parents will not have to cry and say to themselves “what were we thinking” or the very popular phrase “Hashem made me blind”, Hashem doesn’t get the blame because he never instructed us to make such important life decisions in such a reckless manner. If there is one decision in life that needs to be done slowly and carefully it is the marriage of our children. After all we don’t want them hurt and suffering. Divorces break families to pieces and leave the couple with ever lasted trauma drama.
people who are lucky enough not to be one of those who are in the midst of, or having gone throughout a divorce, are blessedly very ignorant of what really goes on. My gripe is with those neighbors and so called friends who take sides with never even hearing one words of one spouse’s side. Don’t be so stupid as to say “no it can’t be that he was abusive-he’s such a great person, a real mentsh to the neighbors, frum, has an important job, bla, bla.