A Brooklyn rabbi and a crew of accomplices set up a Midwood call center to fleece millions of dollars from charitable donors who thought they were helping terror victims and sick children in Israel — then used the cash to pay for everything from an Atlantic City casino jaunt to DVD rentals and fast food, according to court documents released yesterday.
Rabbi Yaakov Weingarten, 52, used “deceptive and highly aggressive tactics to raise millions of dollars” by claiming the money was for “terror-attack survivors, cancer victims, the sick and the poor,” but made only “minuscule transfers of money to Israel,” according to a civil lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
The civil lawsuit also names Weingarten’s wife, Rivka, plus Simon Weiss, 28, and David Yifat, 66, as well as the 19 allegedly fake charities. An AG spokeswoman wouldn’t say whether the allegedly fraudulent foursome would be charged criminally.
An attorney for Weingarten did not respond to a call for comment.