Holocaust Survivor Funds Raided For $42M
NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS/WCBS 880/AP) -- Federal authorities say two funds created to provide relief for cash-strapped Holocaust survivors were raided for more than $42 million with the help of several people who were supposed to administer the funds.
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1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reports
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara described the long-running scheme Tuesday as he announced charges in federal court in Manhattan against 17 people, including the former director of the funds.
For Holocaust survivor Ernest Michel, it was an unimaginable crime.
"I cannot in my life imagine that Jews would take money raised for Holocaust survivors," Michel said.
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Bharara describes the alleged scheme to WCBS 880 reporter Peter Haskell
The prosecutor said six employees of the Conference on the Jewish Material Claims Against Germany were among those charged. He said they created thousands of false applications and duped people into applying who were not eligible so everyone could share funds that never should have been spent.
The Claims Conference is an organization that takes money from the government of Germany and pays compensation to elderly Jews, who suffered under Nazism during World War II.
Bharara said those accused used "fake dates of birth to make people who were not even alive during World War II appear older" in addition to "fake places of birth" and "fake passport photographs."
The Claims Conference said the fraud was so precise and so well planned that the units involved - when they were audited - passed with flying colors.
"It is disgusting, it's disgusting that anyone would steal," Claims Conference Spokesman Greg Schneider said.
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