און אויך, ביטע נישט נעמען עס פערזענדליך, אויב מעגליך

דאנערשטאג איז פארגעקומען א הירינג פאר ארי' לייב גלאנץ וועגן זין קעיס מיט סעקשאן אכט. ארי' לייב האט געפליעד נאוט גילטי, דאס מיינט אז ער וויל גיין אויף טרייעל אין דעם קעיס. לאמיר האפן אז ס'וועט נישט ארויסקומען קיין שלעכטס פון דעם פאר אידן. ‎​
 
‎​http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ex_jail_rabbi_pleads_not_guilty_XVHn2RQdCTdKPY6N2XSPsI?CMP=OTC-rss
 
Ex-jail rabbi pleads 'not guilty' in housing scam ‎​
 
By BRUCE GOLDING ‎​
 
Last Updated: 1:03 PM, January 5, 2012 ‎​
 
The former jailhouse rabbi who lost his job for granting favors to Jewish inmates pleaded not guilty this morning to charges he scammed more than $220,000 in federal housing benefits. ‎​
 
Rabbi Leib Glanz -- who quit as a corrections chaplain after The Post exposed a bar mitzvah bash he arranged inside the Tombs -- is accused with his younger brother of running a 15-year fraud on the Section 8 rent-subsidy program for the poor. ‎​
 
During their arraignment in Manhattan federal court, the bearded, yarmulke-wearing men said only two words: "not guilty." ‎​
 
Prosecutor Justin Anderson said the evidence against them consisted of about 200 pages of documents, including bank statements, credit-card bills and employment records. ‎​
 
Anderson said he planned to hand over the papers to the defense within two weeks. ‎​
 
He also said sides planned to discuss a possible "pre-trial disposition" before the brothers' next court appearance in March. ‎​
 
According to the feds, Leib swindled up to $1,675 a month in taxpayer funds by illegally occupying a Brooklyn duplex that had been approved for his brother, Menashe, who actually lived in another home nearby. ‎​
 
The politically connected leader of the Satmar Hasidic community allegedly pulled off the scam by signing a housing contract on behalf of the building's owner, the United Talmudical Academy, which he once ran. ‎​
 
Meanwhile, Menashe allegedly paid the UTA less than $100 a month to cover the rest of the rent, in what the city Department of Investigation termed the "the largest individual case of tenant fraud" it has ever seen. ‎​
 
Outside court, Menashe's lawyer, Charles Stillman, said: "We're going to take a look at the documents and figure out the right way to go forward." ‎​
 
Leib's lawyer, Alan Vinegrad, declined to comment

It was a dramatic role reversal for Rabbi Glanz, 54, who pleaded guilty in September to knowingly lying to the federal government in order to defraud it of more than $36,000 of Section 8 housing subsidies intended for the poor. The rabbi had run the Satmar community’s school system and served as a bridge between its ultra-Orthodox leaders and secular politicians.

Indeed, Justice P. Kevin Castel of Federal District Court in Manhattan said that in formulating an appropriate punishment, he was trying to * a balance between the past good deeds of the rabbi and the need to deter others from similar crimes.

“Section 8 subsidies are not free money, they exist at the sufferance of the citizens and those who pay taxes,” Justice Castel said. “Punishment is intended to sting,” he added. “It is not simply a matter of rolling back the clock to what it was before the fraud was done.”

Rabbi Glanz broke down in sobs as he asked for lenience before about a dozen supporters and family members in the largely empty courtroom. “All my life, I have tried to do only what is good, I have tried to help many people,” he said. “But in this case, I have not lived up to my own standards. I said ‘yes’ when I should have said ‘no,’ and by doing that, I have failed myself, I have failed many people.”

His brother, Menashe Glanz, 51, who also took part in the fraud scheme, was sentenced on Feb. 20 to six months in prison and six months of home confinement. The men were also required to reimburse the federal government more than $220,000, the total amount stolen in the scheme. The city’s Department of Investigation said at the time of the arrests that the scheme was the largest individual case of tenant fraud it had ever investigated.

Rabbi Glanz made headlines in 2009 when The New York Post revealed he had used his clout as a prison chaplain to arrange for a lavish six-hour bar mitzvah to take place in a Manhattan jail for the son of a wealthy Orthodox Jewish inmate. A city investigation found that senior Correction Department officials had signed off on the party, which included a band and catered food. The scandal led to the rabbi’s resignation from his part-time chaplaincy.

But long before that, the rabbi had been a power player in city politics. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani invited him to the V.I.P. suite when was elected mayor. He was a regular at meetings with local and national politicians seeking votes. He became something of a Satmar master of ceremonies for outsiders, arranging official tours of the sect’s Williamsburg community, and serving as a liaison with the city police.

Rabbi Glanz’s star began to wane in 2006, with the death of the Satmar grand rebbe and the subsequent split of the community into two rival factions. His arrest in 2011 on the fraud charges seemed to indicate how far his fortunes had turned.

According to the government, Menashe Glanz, whose reported annual income was under $7,000, asked his brother starting in 1996 to sign government documents asserting that he lived at 85 Ross Street, which was actually Rabbi Glanz’s address. The subsidy money went to the United Talmudic Academy, where Rabbi Glanz was the chief executive, and in exchange, Menashe Glanz received a reduction for his children’s tuition.

The complete set of charges carried a maximum 15-year prison sentence, but in a plea agreement, Rabbi Glanz pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor, and his brother to two counts of fraud.