A former jails chaplain has agreed to pay a $2,500 fine for accepting a solid silver cup and plate as a gratuity for arranging a highly unorthodox Bar Mitzvah behind bars.
Rabbi Leib Glanz offered an astounding excuse for taking the improper gift, valued at $500: He didn’t want to offend inmate Tuvia Stern and his family.
“I initially refused to accept the gift, but the family and other guests insisted that I accept it,” Glanz said in a settlement with the Conflicts of Interest Board.
Stern had been charged with swindling $1.7 million. He was being held in The Tombs in lower Manhattan in 2008 after jumping bail in 1989 and hiding out in Brazil for 19 years.
Glanz is now facing a much bigger problem: a federal indictment for allegedly stealing $220,000 in Section 8 rent subsidies.