Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, United
States District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis sentenced the defendant Elozer
Porges to 24 months’ imprisonment and 1,000 hours of community service for his
leadership role in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. The Court also ordered
Porges to pay more than $3.2 million in restitution to the United States
Department of Agriculture and a $150,000 fine.
Porges committed this fraud while serving as the Executive Director of
the Central United Talmudic Academy (Central UTA), located in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge,
Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Margaret Garnett,
Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation (DOI), and Bethanne M.
Dinkins, Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Department of Agriculture,
Office of Inspector General (USDA-OIG), announced the sentence.
“Porges now stands convicted and sentenced as a felon for
abusing his position to defraud government programs and steal millions of
dollars in taxpayer funds designated to feed needy children,” stated United
States Attorney Donoghue. “Such criminal
conduct will not go unpunished.”
“The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) was created
to provide food and nutrition to those who truly need this assistance. Those
who are involved in fraud and abuse of USDA feeding programs will be
investigated by our office to the fullest extent,” stated USDA-OIG Special
Agent-in-Charge Dinkins. “Our joint
investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City
Department of Investigation is identifying those who sought to profit from the
CACFP through illegal schemes. The USDA Office of Inspector General will
continue to dedicate investigative resources, working with our law enforcement
and prosecutorial partners, in order to protect the integrity of these programs
and bring to justice those who commit fraud.”
“School children throughout New York City rely on funding
from government programs for their meals every day,” stated DOI Commissioner
Garnett. “This defendant aimed to
defraud those vital programs, inflating the number of meals he claimed to need
for low-income students, and receiving millions of dollars in subsidies to
which Central UTA was not entitled.
Today's prison sentence demonstrates the enduring commitment of DOI and
the U.S. Attorney's Office to protecting taxpayer dollars and ensuring those
funds go to children in need.”
Between October 2013 and December 2015, Porges and his
co-defendant, Joel Lowy, submitted false and misleading monthly claim forms to
the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) for reimbursement from the
federal government for thousands of meals purportedly served to students
attending Central UTA schools at three locations. The claims were submitted pursuant to the
CACFP, a program operating under the authority of the United States Department
of Agriculture that provides funding to qualifying institutions. The fraudulent forms resulted in NYSDOH
reimbursing Central UTA more than $3 million for meals that had not been served
to students. Instead, the funds were
largely spent on non-qualifying evening events attended by adults at a Central
UTA facility on Wythe Street.
Lowy pleaded guilty in March 2018 and is awaiting
sentencing.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s
Public Integrity Section. Assistant
United States Attorneys Erik Paulsen and Maria Cruz Melendez are in charge of
the prosecution.
The Defendant:
ELOZER PORGES
Age: 46
New York, NY
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 17-CR-431 (NGG)
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