NEW YORK
DNA Info
By Gwynne Hogan | December 22, 2016 5:08pm
@gwynnefitz
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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A fundraiser for Mayor Bill de Blasio who oversees government relations for a network of yeshivas was charged for running a $30,000 federal food-stamp scam, according to a criminal complaint.
Yitzchok Iziel (Isaac) Sofer was arrested by the FBI Thursday morning for filing false claims under the federal food subsidy, SNAP, between 2012 and 2016. He claimed poverty while at the same time taking out a life insurance policy in which he reported making $100,000 per year and having $600,000 in assets, Brooklyn federal prosecutors charged.
Sofer collected $30,516 in food stamps during that period, according to the federal complaint.
His arrest comes as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, the indictment stated, though prosecutors would not say if was related to a March raid of the Central United Talmudical Academy’s offices.
At CUTA, Sofer oversees government relations for a group of yeshivas in Williamsburg, Borough Park and at schools upstate, according to the Jewish Forward, which first reported his arrest.
The yeshivas cater to the Orthodox Satmar community called Aaronis, after Grand Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum.
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