Chaptzem Blog!      

A rabbi known as the "Brooklyn Bundler" for his ability to raise campaign money for (mostly) Republican candidates was charged on Thursday with trying to extort $4 million from a Connecticut hedge fund. Rabbi Milton Balkany, who serves as the dean of the Bais Yaakov day school in Borough Park, allegedly dreamed up the scheme after becoming a "spiritual adviser" to a federal inmate who told him about a Connecticut hedge fund that had used inside information in stock trades. Prosecutors say Balkany told lawyers at the hedge fund that unless they handed over $4 million ($2 million of which would go to Bais Yaakov), he'd instruct the inmate to rat them out. But Balkany insists he's just being punished for doing a mitzvah!

"Seven or eight years ago I was accused of wrong-doing and the government had to back off then," Balkany told reporters yesterday as he left court on $250,000 bond. "This is much more ridiculous. When you are in public service that's the price you pay. An innocent man is constantly dragged through the mud. This is from helping an individual in jail. He got a very lengthy term and I was trying to reduce it. I was in touch with the U.S. Attorney's office the whole time." The U.S. Attorney... so important.

Yesterday the feds got audio and video recordings of Balkany and the hedge fund lawyer as Balkany accepted two checks from the hedge fund; $1.25 million for Bais Yaakov and $2 million for Torah Vodaath, another Yeshiva school. He was arrested later that afternoon. He's charged with wire fraud, extortion, blackmail and making false statements. According to the TImes, the wire fraud count a sentence of up to 20 years.

http://gothamist.com/2010/02/19/rabbi_accused_of_extorting_millions.php