An Orthodox Jewish school in New York will pay $8 million to a US court to avoid a lawsuit for financial fraud and embezzlement of public funds, according to court documents released Monday.
The Central United Talmudical Academy (Cuta), which operates the largest Hasidic (a stream of Judaism) educational institution in New York state in the Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, has admitted to embezzling some three million dollars paid by the government to provide daily meals to some 2,000 schoolchildren.
“Refund and repair the damage inflicted”
To end the criminal charges and close the federal investigation launched in 2018, Cuta agreed to pay an additional $5 million fine on top of the $3 million he already returned, according to a press release from the New York US Attorney’s Office. York State, which is located in Brooklyn.
“The crime within Cuta was systemic and large-scale, in particular for the theft of more than three million dollars intended for students who needed to eat,” protested federal prosecutor Breon Peace, quoted in the statement.
The magistrate considered that the agreement sealed with the yeshiva educational institution will allow “reimbursing and repairing the damage inflicted on the Jewish community” of New York, one of the largest in the world outside of Israel, while “by offering the Cuta the possibility of continue to provide education to the children of the community.
“Schools should be places to learn good manners. Cuta leaders have done the opposite by setting up multiple fraudulent schemes to deceive the federal government,” FBI Director Michael Driscoll was quoted as saying in the press release.
Source: BFM TV
