Former chief rabbi Yona Metzger gets jailed for bribery and fraud
Yona Metzger, former chief rabbi in Israel, has been sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison for tax evasion and accepting bribery:
The Jerusalem district court judge Moshe Yoad Hacohen sentenced former Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger to four-and-a-half years in prison, after the Rabbi admitted within the framework of a plea bargain to bribery charges.Tsk tsk tsk. He should've cooperated more convincingly with authorities, and then maybe he wouldn't have gotten an extra year. There's another Haredi crook who now finds justice catching up to him.
The judge did not accept the plea bargain on the matter of the penalty; the plea bargain stipulated three-and-a-half years in prison.
As part of the plea bargain, a revised indictment was submitted against the Rabbi in which it was asserted that Rabbi Metzger had committed during his tenure as Chief Rabbi a number of offenses including taking bribes, fraud, and tax offenses, while functioning in his official capacity and taking advantage of his exalted status. Likewise, during investigations, Rabbi Metzger committed obstruction of justice.
As a result of the offenses, the Rabbi received bribes amounting to 5 million shekels, from which he pocketed 3 million shekels after dividing the money with his driver, who served as his emissary for receiving the bribes.
The revised indictment includes 6 offenses with which the Rabbi is charged.
Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Moonbattery
