TRENTON – The federal kidnapping case against the Lakewood rabbi dubbed “The Prodfather” lacks a critical piece of evidence, his attorney told the jury Tuesday: an actual cattle prod.
The Shuvu Yisrael sect heavily defended its leader Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto on Tuesday, hours after he was convicted for bribery and corruption in the Tel Aviv District Court.
The Tel Aviv District Court convicted Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, head of the Shuvu Yisrael sect, on Tuesday morning, after he confessed to bribery as part of a plea bargain.
A son-in-law of indicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was busted by the feds Monday on charges that he ran a $7 million Ponzi scheme.
Federal prosecutors in the conspiracy and kidnapping trial of a Lakewood rabbi on Monday dismissed one of the charges in a case alleging the religious leader arranged for Orthodox Jewish husbands to be held and tortured until they gave their wives religious divorces.
New York – Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver lost a bid on Friday to dismiss the federal corruption charges he faces due to public statements a top prosecutor made that the once-powerful politician called prejudicial.
“Basically, what we are going to be doing is kidnapping a guy for a couple of hours and beating him up and torturing him and then getting him to give the get,” Rabbi Mendel Epstein told two potential clients.
The Israel Prison Service has begun consulting with the Shin Bet to determine how best to keep former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert safe when he begins his prison sentence for corruption in September or possibly later.
Many high-profile Jewish leaders called on New York’s attorney general to go easy on William Rapfogel, the former chief of New York’s Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, who stole $9 million from the charity, according to a new report.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, already facing a six-year prison term after a corruption conviction, was found guilty on Monday in a separate case of unlawfully accepting payments from a U.S. businessman.