September 2, 2009

What is this World Coming to?

No, this is not about some end-of-the-world, doom and gloom thing. It's about the misdeeds of some people who appear to be above the lure of the love of money. That's right, it's about religious people. It seems money has the same effect on the religious right as it does for the rest of us.

The Grand Rabbi of Spinka, a religious group within Orthodox Judaism, Naftali Tzi Weisz, 61 of Brooklyn, New York secretly solicited donations from donors to whom he would return up to 95% of their donations so that they could make a full claim for deductions for donations to a charitable organization in their income tax returns. In June last year, his assistant, Gabbai Moshe E. Zigelman, 62 already pleaded guilty to abetting with him in this felony and was sentenced to 2 years in a federal prison.

Investigations show that Weisz would refund up to 95% of the donations through a variety of ways. The first way was refunding money through an underground money transfer involving several persons, some of whom operated businesses in and around the Los Angeles area. Yaacov Zievald of Valley Village in California, Yosef Nachum Naiman, Alan Jay Friedman and Moshe Arie Lazar all of Los Angeles have all admitted they played a part in this illegal money transfer ring and are scheduled to plead guilty to charges.

The second way donors received back their contributions was through an elaborate money laundering system. Entities controlled by Spinka would open bank accounts in a bank in Israel with the help of one of its international account managers, Joseph Roth who had already previously pleaded guilty to this scheme. Then Roth would help these donors obtain loans from the Los Angeles branch of the bank using the Israeli bank accounts as collateral. Thus the donors would receive back their money in the United States. Furthermore, the donors could have the money from the bank accounts in Israel repatriated into the United States by paying an additional money laundering fee to Spinka.

In 2006, Spinka had received contributions totaling $8,493,659 and had profits amounting to $744,596 after refunding the donors' contributions.

If convicted, Weisz faces up to 5 years in prison. So far, 3 donors have pleaded guilty to tax evasion and investigations are ongoing on more than 100 other donors. Attorneys for 5 Spinka Brooklyn-based charitable organizations are scheduled to appear before US District Court Judge John F. Walter on felony charges of obstructing the IRS and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Darrin T. Mish is a veteran, nationally recognized tax attorney who has focused on providing IRS help to taxpayers for over a decade. He regularly travels the country training other attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents on how to handle their toughest cases with the IRS. He is highly ranked among the top attorneys in the country, with an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and a perfect 10 on Avvo.com. Martindale-Hubbell has also honored him with a listing in their Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is a member of the American Society of IRS Problem Solvers and the Tax Freedom Institute. With clients on every continent but Antarctica, he has what it takes to solve your IRS problems no matter where you live in the world. If you would like more information about his practice and how he can help you, please call his office at (813) 229-7100 or toll free at 1-888-GET-MISH.

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