rabbi of shooting-scene synagogue convicted of fraud

[yankeedoodle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=31&v=3HhuqQAlrBE&feature=emb_logo

"The Poway synagogue shooting occurred in April 2019, when a gunman allegedly fired shots inside the Chabad synagogue in Poway, California, north of San Diego.

"Allegedly, one woman was killed and three other people were injured

"After fleeing the scene, the alleged gunman, 19-year-old John Timothy Earnest, phoned 9-1-1 and reported the shooting.

"He was apprehended in his car approximately two miles (3.2 km) from the synagogue by a San Diego police officer."

Thre synagogue's Rabbi Goldstein  has now pleaded guilty to participating in a multimillion-dollar fraud.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, senior rabbi of Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego, Calif. pleaded guilty July 14, 2020, to federal charges of tax and wire fraud.

Rabbi Goldstein pleaded guilty to participating in the multimillion-dollar fraud that disguised charitable contributions for personal gain.

Rabbi Goldstein, 58, acknowledged his role in a scheme in which donors made large contributions to Chabad of Poway but then secretly got most of the money back, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Rabbi  Goldstein faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for fraud but prosecutors will recommend probation.

The rabbi admitted taking about $185,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and California Governor's Office of Emergency Services by submitting fake invoices. Brewer said they were related to 2007 wildfires.

https://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2020/07/california-synagogue-shooting-rabbi.html

[yankeedoodle]

Poway rabbi injured in 2019 shooting sentenced to 14 months in fraud case
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/04/united-states/poway-rabbi-injured-in-2019-shooting-sentenced-to-14-months-in-fraud-case

(JTA) — A judge sentenced the rabbi who lost a finger in the 2019 antisemitic shooting attack in Poway, California, to 14 months in prison for his role in a fraud scheme.

The sentencing Tuesday was unusual because the prosecution and the defense agreed that Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein should receive only home confinement.

"You not only committed this offense yourself but you took a lot of people with you," US District Court Judge Cynthia Bashant told Goldstein, the San Diego Times-Union reported.

"I think it's important to send a message to the community, and I think it's important to send a message to you," she said.

Goldstein, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud in 2020, and his co-conspirators must also pay $2.8 million in restitution.

Under the scheme, which federal agents were investigating long before the April 2019 shooting attack that claimed the life of one congregant, donors contributed to Goldstein's synagogue but then got most of the money back, enabling the donor to claim a tax deduction.

Goldstein retired from the Chabad synagogue in November, seven months after confronting a gunman who entered his synagogue on April 27, 2019, the last day of Passover.

Chabad headquarters in New York had condemned Goldstein and moved to relieve him of his duties after it learned he was under investigation.

Last week, the man who killed a woman and wounded three others in the 2019 attack was sentenced to a second life sentence in federal court.