US: 17 defraud Holocaust Fund

This blog talks about 17 defraud Holocaust Fund.

17 people were charged in federal court with a long-running scam that defrauded Holocaust funds for survivors out of $42 million.Some of the fraudulent claims date back to 1993.

It was also said that employees of the Claims Conference -- approved more than 5,500 fraudulent applications, resulting in bogus payouts from the German government through the fund.The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York said that the workers and also those who were part of the conspiracy kept a portion of the payments..

"If ever there was a cause that you would hope and expect would be immune from base greed and criminal fraud, it would be the Claims Conference, which every day assists thousands of poor and elderly victims of Nazi persecution," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Investigators  found something was amiss in two funds administered by the Claims Conference: the Article 2 Fund and the Hardship Fund. The Hardship Fund actually was designed to make reparations to Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution who were forced to leave their homes and flee the Nazis. The majority of the payments were given to former Soviet Bloc residents who fled the Nazis but were not under their occupation. Each applicant gets a one-time payment of about $3,600.

The Article 2 Fund is meant for Jewish survivors who were in hiding under a false name or were confined to a Jewish-designated ghetto, labor camp or concentration camp.When  those who are eligible cannot earn more than $16,000 a year after taxes, they get about $411 a month.

Six employees of the fund were also accused to have processed false applications from some people who were not even born during World War II.
Some of the  conspirators from outside recruited people, who provided identification such as passports and birth certificates, which were then altered and submitted to the corrupt insiders. The applicants took a portion of the payout and gave the rest back to the gang of conspirators, authorities said.

It was claimed that funds established and financed by the German government to aid Holocaust survivors were siphoned off by the greedy, and not paid out, as intended to the worthy.

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