Ex-Yeshiva leader sentenced to two years for $3.2M school-lunch scam

New York Post – by Andrew Denny

A former Yeshiva leader was sentenced to two years in prison Friday in Brooklyn federal court for swiping $3.2 million in government funds that were supposed to provide dinners to needy kids.

Elozer Porges, 46, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for submitting phony documents to the feds from 2013 to 2016 stating that the school was feeding the dinners to at-risk kids at his Central United Talmudic Academy, according to court records. 

But prosecutors said the funds were actually being used to throw social events for adults, as well as bat mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs, in a banquet hall at 762 Wythe St. The expenditures included $800,000 on chicken.

“That’s a lot of chicken, your honor,” Assistant US Attorney Erik Paulsen told Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the sentencing hearing.

Since his ouster from the academy, it has continued to pay Porges $100,000 annually but he does no work on the academy’s behalf.

Porges’ attorneys argued that the convicted leader should just get community service and no prison time because he has 11 children and a wife to care for.

But Paulsen said Porges had actually separated from his wife prior to the scam, leaving her to take care of the couple’s kids with a meager $250-per-week allowance, and that the wife applied for food stamps.

The academy is paying back the $3.2 million in restitution to the US Department of Agriculture, and Porges was fined $150,000.

“He looks forward to redeeming himself and he respects the judge’s decision,” said Henry Mazurek. He declined to comment on Garaufis’ comments about letters in support of Porges.

Joel Lowy, Porges’ codefendant in the scam, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

https://nypost.com/2019/10/25/ex-yeshiva-leader-sentenced-to-two-years-for-3-2m-school-lunch-scam/