Probe: Group paid associate of Hirchson over $700,000
Investigation under way into money paid by non-profit group to ex-Finance Minister's associate.
By Amiram BarkatThe non-profit group March of the Living paid more than $700,000 to an associate of disgraced Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson, who has recently suspended himself due to the corruption investigation against him, according to a joint investigation by The Jewish Week and the business daily Globes.
The businessman who received the money, Curtis Hoxter, is also closely associated with former World Jewish Congress leader Israel Singer, who is president of the Claims Conference, a Jewish umbrella organization that has paid millions of dollars to the March of the Living.
The Claims Conference announced last week that it had opened a comprehensive examination of fund transfers to the March of the Living following the police probe against Hirchson and the reported suspicions against him.
Hoxter, 85, acted behind the scenes in the 1990s during the negotiations between the WJC and the Swiss banks over compensation fees for owners of latent accounts. In 2001 Singer was considering joining Hoxter's public relations company in Manhattan as a partner.
He decided to step down after being warned of a conflict of interest.
Two months ago Haaretz reported that from 2001 to 2003 Hoxter had received payments from the WJC in the amount of $657,000 without doing anything in return. The payments were stopped after WJC was accused of financial disorders. These charges were followed by an investigation of then New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who found Singer and his chief aide, Elan Steinberg, responsible for financial mismanagement of the organization.
The March of the Living began payments to Hoxter, totaling $709,000, the year Singer was instructed to stop making unauthorized payments to him via the WJC, The Jewish Week reports.
The money was purportedly paid for "fundraising," but Hoxter was unable to explain what work he did for the group.
The Claims Conference, which represents Holocaust victims in negotiations for compensation from Germany, has been allocating millions of dollars annually in recent decades to organizations helping needy Holocaust survivors and commemorating the Holocaust.
Since 1998 the commission has transferred some $7.5 million for "student scholarships."
Singer, who was recently forced out of the WJC, remains the Claims Conference president.
Claims Conference officials said that Singer has never filled any role in its allocations process. However, the officials said they had instructed an accountant's examination of fund transfers to the March of the Living.
Hirchson's attorney Yaakov Weinrot confirmed that his client brought Hoxter to March of Living, but said Hirchson had not "realized his salary would be so large."
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I have proposal, perhaps naive, which could come perhaps, only from 'the ivory tower' - I return to it each time I read about one of our 'big-shot' lawyers, ardently defending, at an exorbitant fee, one of our our crooked elite - in this case, Weinroth defending Hirschson. My proposal, no doubt revolutionary, awful - is that lawyers should NOT be permitted to lie in court - not even when they are serving that sacred cause of everyone's right to a defence until proved innocent. We face an almost daily parade of members of our political elite, up to the president, being accused of misdemeanours which reek to the heavens with filth and corruption. By all means, give them the right to spend huge sums (which of course, the ordinary citizen cannot dream of) to secure the best defence that they buy - but let us also pass a law that defines lying in court, by anyone, as a criminal offence, to be punished by the full force of the law.
I find this corruption and money laundering claim particularly disgusting because of the connection it has with the non-profit group March of the Living and some (Jewish) representatives of other Jewish organizations - like WJC - involved. It's really sad to notice that out of all people some Jews seem to have no fear of God and shame to touch the money of organizations so closely involved with the poor victims of the Holocaust. Where is their honor, even common criminals and murderers usually have a certain "code of honor" regarding their conduct. What do they think, that Yom Kippur will "clean" them for another year of corruption? BE ASSURED THAT ANY GENTILE reading the articles about Hirchson's corrupt deeds involving the March of the Living certainly will loose a lot of symphaty for Israel and easily start generalizing and thinking/saying that "THEY'RE ALL THE SAME". Consequently the first step to anti-Jewishness is made !
The trouble with people like Hirchson is that after long years of public service, they feel as if they are little above the law for ordinary mortals...... So they allow themselves a bit of leeway here and there, and after a time it becomes complicated....