The Central United Talmudical Academy in Brooklyn, a major Jewish day school in New York City, agreed to pay $5 million in penalties, in addition to over $3 million in restitution it has paid already. On Monday it admitted in US federal court that it had defrauded the government of millions of dollars, including by misappropriating funds designated to feed needy children.
The resolution will allow the school to avoid criminal charges, close a federal investigation that began in 2018, and continue operations.
The resolution will allow the school to avoid criminal charges, close a federal investigation that began in 2018, and continue operations.
New York’s yeshiva system has been increasingly under scrutiny for its lack of secular education and receipt of public funding. The criticism and efforts to better enforce state education guidelines have sparked fierce backlash in the Haredi community.
CUTA is New York’s largest Hasidic yeshiva and is located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the home base of the Satmar movement. The not-for-profit school serves over 5,000 students, from preschool to high school, out of three buildings. The boys’ school serves around 2,500 students, court documents said.
Elozer Porges, the school’s former director, and his assistant, Joel Lowy, pleaded guilty to fraud in 2018. Porges was sentenced to two years in prison, and Lowy got probation, community service and $98,000 in restitution penalties.
US Attorney Breon Peace on Monday called the school’s misconduct “systemic and wide ranging, including stealing over $3 million allocated for schoolchildren in need of meals.”
