A Maryland rabbi who called himself the "Jewish Indiana Jones"--telling derring-do tales of rescuing Torahs hidden during the Holocaust--was charged today with criminal fraud. The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York said Menachem Youlus made it all up, swindling a charity he co-founded and its donors.
In a press release and a 21-page complaint that reeks--literally--of chutzpah, federal authorities said that Youlus, 50, of Wheaton, Md., "fabricated detailed accounts of having found Torahs lost or hidden during the Holocaust in Europe, including in Auschwitz and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and in other places around the world." The false accounts were used, the documents say, to solicit contributions to Save a Torah, a tax-exempt nonprofit he helped set up in 2004. Among other alleged misdeed, Youlus embezzled money or submitted inflated invoices for Torahs he often obtained not by death-defying actions but by buying them from dealers.
"His alleged exploits were no more real than those of the movie character he claimed to resemble," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. Youlus, he said, exploited "an excruciating chapter in Jewish and international history to perpetrate a brazen fraud that played on the heartstrings of the people for whom the painful memories of that period will never die." Torahs are Hebrew-language Bibles written on parchment scrolls.
Youlus surrendered to authorities in New York this morning. The charges brought against him--mail and fire fraud--were in the form of a complaint rather than an indictment voted by a grand jury. The use of a complaint is often an indication that a plea bargain is in the works. But the Associated Press quoted a lawyer for Youlus as denying the charges.
Because the case alleges fraud using a charity that had been granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Services, there a possibility that donors might face the prospect that their tax-deductible contributions will be disallowed. The criminal case complaint said $1.2 million was raised over the years.
Certainly, the complaint, technically, a sworn statement from U.S. Postal Inspector Greg Ghiozzi, is a good read. Among the allegations:
--Youlus said that in 2002 he found a Torah that had been hidden at Bergen Belsen, a notorious World War II German concentration camp, after he fell through the floorboard of a barracks. The complaint says the original barracks were demolished after the war and replaced, and that Youlus did not leave the country then.
--He falsely claimed that he found a buried Torah in 2004 at Auschwitz using a metal detector.
--Youlus claimed to have purchased a 400-year-old Torah found by members of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division in an abandoned building Mosul, Iraq. in early 2007. In reality, the 82nd Airborne was nowhere in that area at that time.
--In one cited example Youlus bought a Torah from an unnamed dealer for $5,200 and billed Save a Torah for $17,847.
--Youlus embezzled money from the charity, often by by submitting inflated invoices for services rendered from Jewish Bookstore, a business he owned. It does seem that the charity, which is depicted as a victim, was not particularly careful about obtaining proper verifications.
The latest available tax filing for Save a Torah, for the year ending Dec. 31, 2009, listed revenue of just $31,000 and expenses of $150,000.
Like that big stone chasing Indiana Jones in the movie, a precursor of bad things to come came in January 2010 when a lengthy Washington Post article cast serious doubt on much of what Youlus had claimed over the years. One donor identified was billionaire investor David Rubenstein. That prompted an investigation by Maryland charitable regulators. In July 2010 Save a Torah agreed to stop telling such dramatic rescue stories unless there was documentation.
Perhaps surprisingly, Save a Torah still has a functioning website. The opening page consists of a statement about the July 2010 settlement. But a link quickly takes one to the the regular home page, with the plea, "DONATE NOW!"
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