The feds are expanding an investigation into who swiped hundreds of thousands of dollars from area synagogues, Assemblyman Dov Hikind said Monday.
Checks ranging from $5 to $18,000 were reported stolen from temples in Queens, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Michigan.
Hikind said he gave information to the FBI last month after receiving reports that at least 34 checks had been ripped off from synagogues in three states.
“I want to get to the bottom of this,” said Naftali Horowitz, 30, director of the Bostoner Shul in Flatbush. “I want to find out who had access to my office.”
Horowitz reported that an envelope containing five checks totaling $5,000 was stolen from his office.
New Jersey FBI officials, who are spearheading the probe, did not immediately comment.
Hikind said the stolen checks were deposited into check-cashing accounts as far-flung as Israel before being transferred into banks not affiliated with the synagogues.
Hikind said he has received copies of $385,000 in cashed checks, which had stamps from check-cashing places on the back.
(Source: NY Daily News)
Money laundering
This should be very easy to crack, i would think. every account has an account holder with a name address associated with it
Kudos to Dov Hikind for again taking the lead in defending our community.
Affinity scams are easy to pull off. We let our guard down around people who look like us, act like us, and talk like us.
Yet, as the late Ronald Reagan put it, when dealing with a potential adversary: “Trust, but verify.” This sounds like a ring of thieves. Should checks be lying around or stored in a lock box? Should persons who claim to be beggars be granted access to all sorts of areas of our houses of worship?
Kudos to Dov Hikind for again taking the lead in defending our community.
Affinity scams are easy to pull off. We let our guard down around people who look like us, act like us, and talk like us.
Yet, as the late Ronald Reagan put it, when dealing with a potential adversary: “Trust, but verify.” This sounds like a ring of thieves. Should checks be lying around or stored in a lock box? Should persons who claim to be beggars be granted access to all sorts of areas of our houses of worship?
Leon Zacharowicz
THis is terrible thing to do people who need to scam money from a synagogue should be a shame of themselves
kuperman1:
A person cannot be “a shame of themselves”, a person can be ashamed of themselves.