From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 11:48 AM
To: Devin Standard
Subject: RE: ROAR

Happy to hear from u – I thought u father may have gone beyond colluding with Debeers and in pulling out all stops had fallen in love in my royal mater to the point of being her lap dog and in exchange had gifted her husband alan Zulman to be your mother’s mistress, no strike that seamstress.

-----Original Message-----
From: Devin Standard
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 11:41 AM
To: gsg@sellnext.com
Subject: Re: ROAR

wow!

"Gary S. Gevisser" <gsg@sellnext.com> wrote:

From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 6:15 AM PT
To: Deborah Sturman Esq.
Cc: rest; Devin Standard; Rabbi Abner Weiss; Tefo Mohapi; DeBeers Diamond Cartel

Subject: ROAR

Deborah – should we thank u and/or me and/or Melvyn Weiss and/or could it be smoke screen created by Kenneth Standard Esq. President of the New York State Bar Association in collaboration with the DeBeers Diamond Cartel?

Let me know when u r ready to be of more help with our “social cause”.

Gary

Money-Shifting Uproar Shakes World Jewish Congress

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: November 30, 2004

The World Jewish Congress is in turmoil, two decades after the billionaire Edgar M. Bronfman Sr. rescued it from crushing debts and propelled it to remarkable successes.

With just a few dozen employees and an $8 million annual operating budget, the congress, a nonprofit organization, brought to light the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, the former United Nations chief, and forced Swiss banks to pay more than $1 billion to settle Holocaust-related claims.

Now the organization that criticized those banks for their lack of transparency and accountability finds itself under attack on similar accusations - and from within the Jewish community.

An odd series of money transfers totaling $1.2 million first to a Swiss account and then to one in London has critics crying foul and questioning whether the money was improperly moved by Israel Singer, the 62-year-old rabbi who has generally led the organization since 1985.

Four people who pressed for a full audit of the money transfer have left the congress or been dismissed, and another has been suspended from a subsidiary organization

The Geneva accountant who, together with Rabbi Singer, signed for the money's transfer to an account in London has been fired for paying himself roughly $1,900 a month more than his approved salary. The Geneva office was then ordered closed - although after two employees who raised questions were let go, the organization has since decided to keep it open.

None of the transferred money is missing, and a review of the paper trail by the congress's auditor uncovered no irregularities, said Stephen E. Herbits, who was brought in by Mr. Bronfman in September to complete an overhaul of the organization that began last year. The only financial wrongdoing, he said, were the accountant's payments to himself, which he attributed to that man's possible dementia.

Mr. Herbits said he was concerned that the uproar over the money transfer threatened to destroy the organization and that it had complicated efforts to strengthen oversight and rewrite the group's constitution. "I am horrified by the time and cost and embarrassment and potential damage that this is doing and for reasons that are not substantive and have come up by pure desire for influencing politics and having prestige," Mr. Herbits said.

Isi Leibler, a retired Australian businessman, said the Geneva money transfer was symptomatic of the organization's feeble controls over management and money. Mr. Leibler was ousted in September from the organization's steering committee but remains senior vice president, a titular role.

"I want a clear investigation," Mr. Leibler said. "If people have done wrong things, they should go, and the organization should establish financial transparency, accountability and checks and balances over its money."

Mr. Bronfman, who built the Seagram Company Ltd. into one of the world's premier purveyors of liquor, was virtually the organization's sole backer at one point, and he continues to contribute about $2 million a year.

For years, Mr. Bronfman and Rabbi Singer ran the congress as a fief, Mr. Leibler said. "I accepted that because I felt that Mr. Bronfman was himself giving the bulk of the funds," Mr. Leibler said. "I'm now aware that about 80 percent of money comes from 400,000 donors who provide money to the American section, but the organization is still effectively controlled by Rabbi Singer, who operates under jurisdiction of Mr. Bronfman."

Rabbi Singer, who is responsible for billions of dollars in Holocaust reparations and restitution through his leadership of the Claims Conference and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, declined to comment. So did Mr. Bronfman, the president of the congress. Mr. Herbits said he was speaking on their behalf.

The $1.2 million was moved out of the congress's New York account into a numbered UBS account in Switzerland in five installments from October 2002 through February 2003.

The people running the Geneva office were unaware of the account, according to a letter to Mr. Herbits from Daniel Lack, a lawyer who had worked for the congress in Geneva for 29 years.