TRENTON, NJ—Mordchai Fish, the principal
rabbi of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced today
to 46 months in prison for conspiring to launder approximately $900,000 he
believed was criminal proceeds, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Fish, 59, of Brooklyn, New York,
previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano to an
information charging him with money laundering conspiracy. Judge Pisano also
imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this
case and statements made in court:
Fish admitted that beginning in early
2008, he met with Solomon Dwek, an individual he now knows was a cooperating
witness with the United States. For a fee of approximately 10 percent, Fish
agreed to launder and conceal Dwek’s funds through a series of purported
charities, also known as “gemachs,” which Fish controlled or to which he had
access. Fish admitted that prior to laundering Dwek’s funds, Dwek repeatedly
told him the money was the proceeds of illegal activity—including bank fraud,
trafficking in counterfeit goods, and bankruptcy fraud.
In order to hide the source of the
money, Fish directed Dwek to make the checks payable to several
gemachs—including Boyoner Gemilas Chesed, Beth Pinchas, CNE, and Levovous—which
were purportedly dedicated to providing charitable donations to needy
individuals. Once Dwek gave him the checks, Fish passed them to a
co-conspirator who deposited them into bank accounts held in the names of the
purported charities. Fish would then arrange to make cash available through an
underground money transfer network. Other individuals, including David S.
Golhirsh, Naftoly Weber, Avrohom Y. Polack, Binyamin Spira, and Yoely Gertner,
would provide Fish and Dwek with the cash.
Fish admitted that he engaged in
approximately 15 money laundering transactions with Dwek, helping to convert
approximately $900,000 in checks into more than $800,000 in cash, keeping a
cut.
In addition to the prison term, Judge
Pisano sentenced Fish to three years’ supervised release and ordered him to
forfeit $90,000. Fish was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on
August 14, 2012.U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under
the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, and special agents of
IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in
Charge John R. Tafur, with the investigation.
The government is represented by
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special
Prosecutions Division in Newark.
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