Last Of 10 Men Involved In Religious Divorce Plot Sentenced To Prison

TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The last of 10 men who took part in a ring to coerce religious divorces out of recalcitrant Jewish men has been sentenced to prison.

Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Jay Goldstein was sentenced Wednesday to eight years for his role in the operation.

He was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping. Prosecutors say he traveled with two of his sons and five other men from New York to a warehouse in New Jersey to kidnap a man they believed was refusing to grant his wife the religious divorce known as a 'get.'

Goldstein, along with 9 other men were arrested after the FBI raided several locations in October 2013, including Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Suffern, a home in Brooklyn and at least one other location in New Jersey.

The FBI set up undercover sting set up after officials found out about three other incidents involving men being tied up and beaten into granting divorces.

Prosecutors said the team used brutal methods, including handcuffs and electric cattle prods, to torture men into granting religious divorces.

On Tuesday, Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood N.J. was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Rabbi Binyamin Stimler, 40, of Brooklyn, received three years and three months.

In November, Avrohom Goldstein, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Ariel Potash, of Monsey, New York, got a sentence of one year and two months, and Sholom Schuchat, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to time served. Moshe Goldstein, 32, of Brooklyn, was also sentenced to four years in prison.

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