From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent:
To: Deborah Sturman Esq.
Cc: rest;
Devin Standard;
Subject: ROAR
Deborah
– should we thank u and/or me and/or Melvyn Weiss and/or could it be
smoke screen created by
Let
me know when u r ready to be of more help with our “social cause”.
Money-Shifting Uproar Shakes World Jewish Congress
Published:
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.
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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
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
"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
The people running the