Trenton, NJ – The spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States was sentenced Wednesday to two years of unsupervised probation for using a charity he controlled to illegally funnel money to Israel.
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Dressed in a black suit and a traditional black hat, 89-year-old Rabbi Saul Kassin appeared frail and confused Tuesday, asking his lawyers to explain to him what was happening and accusing the FBI and the court of unfairly targeting him.
“You did all this to me under almighty God,” Kassin said in a long statement before the judge imposed his sentence. “Aggravation, sorrow. Many nights I could not sleep.”
U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano spared Kassin a prison sentence, citing his old age, but fined him $36,750, in addition to the nearly $370,000 Kassin agreed to forfeit after he was caught up in New Jersey’s largest-ever corruption bust.
The chief rabbi of Congregation Sharee Zion in Brooklyn, N.Y., Kassin pleaded guilty in March to one count of unauthorized money transmitting. According to the criminal complaint, he had used the Magen Israel Society, a charity he controlled, to deposit thousands of dollars in checks from Solomon Dwek, the son of another New Jersey rabbi. Kassin then issued checks to other organizations at Dwek’s behest, taking a 10 percent commission.
Dwek had become a cooperating witness for the FBI after pleading guilty to a $50 million bank fraud, wearing a wire as he presented the illegal deal to Kassin as part of a federal sting operation dubbed Operation Bid Rig.
Forty-six people were arrested in 2009 as part of the corruption and money-laundering investigation, including high-level elected officials, public workers, Kassin and four other Orthodox rabbis. The ongoing investigation became New Jersey’s largest-ever corruption bust.
Baruch Matier Asurim
No one should have ever put the 89 year old Rav in such a position to begin with.
Baruch Hashem !!!
Hachacham einav BeRosho…
“arrested in July 2009 as part of a massive federal probe”
What probe when probe, it was part of a massive federal setup to frame people so that one can save himself. Similar to the Mafia where if you don’t have to pay they make you do their dirty work. This was no probe.
I don’t believe that the Rabbi Kassin knew exactly what this was about. He was told that it was for Tzedaka. He is a good man and a tzadik.
ברוך השם
It’s unbelievable to me that the moser who entrapped all these people was not put in cherem.
His “crime” was that rabbi’s from Israel who have no clue about tax exemption would make donations to Magen Abraham and he would make out a check to them. No money was lost for the country because without the tax exempt most people would donate their money elsewhere.
I once helped such a rabbi and Rabbi Kassin gave him the entire amount collected. He did not take a penny as a deserved commission.