Beth Jacob’s Robert Kasirer Ratted Out The Spinka Hasidim To The Feds

A prominent member of the largest Orthodox synagogue west of the Mississippi is the essential figure — without him, this could not have happened — in the recent takedown of the  grand rabbi of Spinka, Naftali Tzi Weisz, 59, and his assistant, Moshe E. Zigelman, 60, and six other Orthodox Jews.

According to the indictment, Kasirer was a member of the criminal conspiracy from 1996. In October of 1994, he became a witness for the government.

According to the indictment, Robert’s wife Debra was in on the criminal enterprise.

"Robert Kasirer ratted out Jews who weren’t even on the feds radar," says a source. "I bet he’ll even be at shul this week. He’s a prominent member of Beth Jacob who has been in trouble for a long time for fraud. Even while he was a known fraud and bilked millions and millions from private investors, he was welcome in Beth Jacob. He was treated with respect by Rabbi Weil. He was called to the bima. He hosted BJ events. It was business as usual."

UPDATE: In early January 2008, Kasirer tried to attend Beth Jacob on Shabbos and was kept out.

Informing to Gentile authorities on a fellow Jew is frowned upon in Jewish life (except when Jews live in a just society like ours), particularly Orthodox Jewish life, and it has sometimes carried the penalty of death.

"If Kasirer did this to the Italian Mob, he’d be in a witness protection program," says an observer. "I don’t think the Spinka Hasidim are going to put a hit on him."

Spinka is a Hasidic sect based in Brooklyn.

Its illegal tactics are widely aped in the religious world (Jewish and goyish).

Twelve years ago, Rabbi Low was the Hasidic rabbi (wore a bekesher, he seemed like the frumest of the frum) at what is now known as Bais Yehuda at the corner of La Brea and Oakwood. It’s a big brick shul. It was then known as Mogen Avraham. This is where ANY ONE who was any one prayed — all the old timers such as Saul Kest, Moshe Weiss, Robert Kasirer, Stanley Diller etc… The shul was loaded. Rabbi Low brough a kollel of top scholars with him from Israel and could not support it so he started laundering money. He was busted and did five years in prison (circa 1995-2000). The shul never recovered. Now people pray at Yavneh, Rubins, Young Israel of Hancock Park…

A vestige of the kollel remains.

On Rabbi Low’s first trial, there a black woman on the jury who wouldn’t vote to convict him. There was a hung jury. The holy rabbi announced it was a sign from G-d. On the second trial, HaShem wasn’t in the courtroom and he was convicted.

Robert Kasirer is one of Beth Jacob’s biggest donors (over a million dollars). He dedicated the Soloveitchik Artscroll machzor (High Holiday prayer book) and bought them for the whole shul.

On the top of its website BethJacob.org, the shul says: "Beth Jacob is a Modern Orthodox Shul located in the heart of the religious Los Angeles and Beverly Hills community. Beth Jacob is a shul that strives to engage our members in areas of chesed, Torah study, and communal activism."

Beth Jacob’s rabbi, Steven Weil, is famous for his  no-predators policy. It landed him on the cover of the Dec. 8, 2006 Jewish Journal.

For years, Rabbi Weil and Beth Jacob (I believe they did not know about the things Aron did) honored sexual predator Rabbi Aron Tendler.

(I want to step outside my reporter role for a paragraph. I was booted from Beth Jacob by Rabbi Weil in the fall of 2001. When questioned about his decision, Rabbi Weil says privately that he heard from two women that many years previously I had aggressively sexually come on to them. I believe this accusation is true (though I have no idea who these women were, back then there were so many). That said, I have great sympathy for a shul having a no-predator policy. I believe Rabbi Weil is a good person and a good rabbi. All good people have standards. All standards, by definition, are selectively applied. By putting the speed limit at 65 mph, you are saying it is legal to drive 64 mph and it is illegal to drive 66 mph. By going to great lengths to have a predator-free shul, Rabbi Weil has antagonized a lot of people who may not be predators and opened himself up to extra scrutiny in this area.)

From the latest Young Israel of North Beverly Hills (the richest Orthodox shul in Los Angeles) bulletin: "YINBH extends condolences to one of our founding members, Robert Kasirer, and his family on the passing of his father, Mr. Yacov Kasirer z"l."

Amy Klein’s Dec. 21 article in the Jewish Journal is precious:

The Los Angeles Orthodox Community went into shock this week over the federal indictment of four of their own. They were among eight men accused of running a tax fraud scheme funneled through a Brooklyn Yeshiva.

…A fifth Angeleno, named in the indictment as R.K., was a member of the conspiracy from 1996 through October 2004 and then became a cooperating witness for the government.

…In Los Angeles’ tight-knit ultra-Orthodox community in the Fairfax-Beverly, Hancock Park neighborhood, people were quietly talking about the case and were extremely upset that members of their community may have been involved in such a "non-religious" activity.

"One thing is clear: The Orthodox community deplores any attempt to defraud the government of the United States, and there is no excuse for it, and there’s no rationalizations that are acceptable," said Rabbi Meyer H. May, president of the Rabbinical Council of California. "It’s against the Torah and it’s against our moral foundation. At the same time, regarding these specific individuals, they should be allowed to have a fair trial, as everyone is innocent until proven guilty." He also stressed that people should beware of lashon hara, or gossip, of discussing this case, and to keep in mind that there are wives and children and family members who might also be hurt.

But whatever the verdict on the accused, Rabbi May said this should be a wake-up call to the community. "The community should look deeply inside itself to examine its values, its commitment to truth, and its understanding of what God really wants us to be and how he wants us to act. We are here in this world to sanctify the name of God and not to denigrate it."

He stressed that the accused are individuals, not representatives of the Orthodox or Hasidic community. "Ninety nine percent do pay taxes correctly, do abide by the law, do take their positions as citizens of the United States seriously and ethically."

…While no rabbi today would condone any illegal activity, occurrences of tight-knit religious communities defrauding the government dates back to Europe, says Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. "I think that in Eastern Europe, especially where corruption was rampant, it was very common for Jews to engage in, shall we say, ‘extra-legal activities,’ when they believed they were doing so not for their personal gain but for the good of the community or for some higher purpose." Since the governments for the most part were corrupt, it became part of the culture, he said – a culture that unfortunately may have at times carried to the United States.

In the New Square case, the money was diverted for Jewish education, he said.

"I think the idea is that Jewish education is so important and so expensive and the folks say to themselves, ‘we’re forced to pay for public education which we don’t use,’ and they manage to sometimes justify in their own minds these kinds of activities that are for the sake of a holy end."

But no one condones it, he added. "Naturally in a free country that runs according to law that we vote upon, we do not permit individuals to violate the law."

The New York Times reported Dec. 20: "The case was broken, in part, with the help of a secret cooperating witness, a Los Angeles businessman identified in the indictment only as R. K. In one year alone, before he turned state’s evidence and agreed to record his former colleagues secretly, R. K. contributed about $1.7 million to the Spinka sect’s scheme."

Who is Robert Kasirer? This Dec. 15, 2003 Los Angeles Business Journal story gives some idea:

For years, Beverly Hills lawyer and health care entrepreneur Robert Kasirer has fought off a string of fraud accusations and monetary judgments that resulted when his business ventures went sour.

While bond investors and lenders have sought repayment, Kasirer–the son of a philanthropist and health care executive–has continued to live a lifestyle that costs, by his estimate, $122,000 a month. Despite his admitted business setbacks, Kasirer serves on research boards at both UCLA and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he and his wife also chair the parents’ volunteer program committee.

….Earlier this month, Kasirer was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles investigating Medicare fraud. His lawyers, citing the possibility of a criminal indictment, were able to place on hold a lawsuit seeking class action status that alleges he defrauded hundreds of municipal bond investors, according to documents filed in the civil case.

Many of those investors had already been victimized once, by Alzheimer’s disease, by the time they encountered Kasirer, according to documents in the 273-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Central District of California.

Kasirer is involved in numerous other legal scrapes, some related to the non-profit operator of the Alzheimer’s facilities, Heritage Healthcare of America, and some not. He has created dozens of companies under various names, and has been the subject of investigations by the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We have all the evidence to prove Kasirer is a crook who defrauded elderly bond investors," said Brian Barry, a lawyer representing hundreds of bondholders. "There were kickbacks to all of the parties involved, his wife was on the payroll and then the lawyer in the case simply destroyed all of the documents. The whole scheme was deliberate and detailed."

…Earlier this year, Kasirer and his wife Debra were sued by Alliance Bank of Culver City for failing to make payments on a $750,000 loan they received in 2001.

…After using about $150,000 for construction work and furnishing of a second home, and lending another $250,000 to a friend, Kasirer said he had used "the rest of the money for my living expenses, as I am between career opportunities and my last business venture was not successful."

He went on to cite a minimum of $122,208 in monthly living expenses, including: $16,000 for his gated house on the 600 block of Canon Drive in Beverly Hills; $7,600 for a ski house in Park City, Utah; $4,350 for auto expenses; $5,100 in religious dues and donations; $12,000 for his children’s tuition; and $45,000 for legal fees.

Kasirer’s personal spending patterns pop up frequently in the allegations involving Heritage Healthcare.

The investors’ complaint alleges that he "caused the improper transfer of bond monies to himself, his wife and/or his companies," even while he was paid a salary of $920,000 a year from 1997 to 2000.

Debra Kasirer also received more than $1 million in salary and consulting fees from Heritage Healthcare through her own company, Mishkan Healthcare, which lists the couple’s Beverly Hills home as its business office, the lawsuit states.

Robert’s father, Jacob Kasirer, is an executive at Golden State Health Centers Inc. in Sherman Oaks and an active philanthropist who donated enough money to Bais Yaakov High School on Beverly Boulevard to get his name engraved on the building. His company was paid at least $198,000 in consulting fees by Heritage Healthcare and was listed as a supervisory manager in one of the bond offerings, according to the complaint.

According to a 1992 story in the Los Angeles Times, Kasirer was president of Beverly Hills Medical Holdings, which purchased Beverly Hills Hospital and became the subject of several lawsuits.

The lawsuit alleges that Kasirer, his associates, his wife and his father collected millions of dollars in consulting fees and illegal payments, such as feasibility studies, that ultimately caused the Alzheimer’s facilities to run out of money and collapse.

…But the lawsuit alleges that in 1996, as the Rancho Hospital offering was about to close, "Robert and Debra Kasirer decided to use the bondholders’ money to pay for a trip to Hawaii for themselves" by arranging for a board meeting to be held on Maui.

In 1999, the Texas Department of Human Services conducted an investigation of a Heritage facility in Houston where "residents requiring an incontinence program did not receive help, residents were abusing each other without repercussions and a raging scabies epidemic was not contained," according to the lawsuit.

A Sarasota, Fla., facility was apparently built on a flood plain, causing an employee to complain that alligators often roamed the grounds and were a safety concern to the elderly patients, the lawsuit states.

Here’s more from the Los Angeles Business Journal (July 5, 2004):

THE Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges last week against Beverly Hills resident Robert Kasirer and four executives involved in the collapse of Heritage Healthcare of America, which sold $131 million of municipal bonds in the late 1990s, ostensibly to fund health care facilities for Alzheimer’s patients.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claims the five California defendants engaged in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 1,800 investors in 36 states.

The 11 municipal bond offerings, sold from 1996 to 1999, were supposed to be used to build nursing homes in California, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Only five facilities actually opened, including Rancho Hospital in Rancho Cucamonga, which filed for bankruptcy. The others were taken over through a receivership.

The SEC complaint alleges that Kasirer, 55, an attorney who controlled Heritage Healthcare, engaged in kickbacks and profited from the scheme, including putting his wife and father on the payroll of Heritage affiliate companies.

It’s a good thing that Rabbi Weil maintains such strict standards against financial predators or who knows how much trouble honored members of Beth Jacob would get into.

A Google search of "Robert Kasirer" turned up many results, including:

LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 18774 / July 1, 2004 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. ROBERT A. KASIRER, ET AL. (United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 04-C-4340). Robert A. Kasirer, Jerold V. Goldstein, Joel T. Boehm, James E. Iverson and Victor P. Dhooge Charged With Fraudulent Offer and Sale of $131 Million of Municipal Revenue Bonds

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced that it filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on June 29 against Robert A. Kasirer, Jerold V. Goldstein, Joel T. Boehm, James E. Iverson and Victor P. Dhooge. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants, acting in concert, fraudulently offered and sold over $131 million of municipal revenue bonds to members of the public.

The SEC’s Complaint alleges that the Defendants offered and sold the bonds in question through a series of eleven offerings underwritten by the now-defunct, Minnesota firm of Miller & Schroeder Financial, Inc. ("Miller & Schroeder"). The Complaint alleges that the Defendants sold the bonds to more than 1,800 investors residing in thirty-six states. The Complaint alleges that the purported purpose of each bond offering was to finance the development of a specified healthcare facility by Heritage Housing Development, Inc., a company effectively controlled by Defendant Kasirer ("Heritage"). The Complaint alleges that all together, there were ten Heritage facilities located in the states of Texas, Florida, Illinois and California. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants represented in offering documents that the proceeds from each bond offering would be used to finance one specific healthcare facility. The Complaint alleges that in fact, however, the costs of developing the Heritage facilities, including payments to Defendant Kasirer and some of his family members, outstripped the proceeds from the facilities’ respective bond offering. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants covered the resulting cash shortfalls by operating a type of Ponzi scheme, commingling bond proceeds and diverting bond proceeds from more recent offerings to pay the expenses of earlier projects. The Complaint alleges that this diversion of bond proceeds from one project to another went on for three years. The Complaint alleges that beginning in February 2000, the Heritage facilities ran out of money and defaulted on their obligations to bondholders. Presently, all the Heritage facilities are in default on their bonds.

The Complaint alleges that Defendants Kasirer and Goldstein controlled Heritage and personally directed the commingling and misapplication of bond proceeds and that Defendants Iverson and Dhooge, representatives of Miller & Schroeder, managed the underwriting of the various bond offerings, despite their knowledge that bond proceeds were being wrongfully commingled and diverted. The Complaint alleges that Defendant Boehm, an attorney who acted as counsel for Miller & Schroeder in the bond offerings, issued favorable legal opinions despite his knowledge that bond proceeds were being wrongfully commingled and diverted.

The Commission seeks the entry of permanent injunctions, disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest and civil penalties against Kasirer, Goldstein, Boehm, Iverson and Dhooge.

SEC Complaint in this matter

Here’s the happy ending from the SEC:

Litigation Release No. 20358 / November 5, 2007 SEC v. Robert Kasirer, et al., Case Number 05-CV-3059-RSWL (C.D. Calif.) SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Robert A. Kasirer in Municipal Revenue Bond Offering Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) announced that on October 31, 2007, the Honorable Ronald S. W. Lew, Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, issued a final judgment against Defendant Robert A. Kasirer ("Kasirer") which: (1) permanently enjoined Kasirer from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; and (2) ordered Kasirer to pay disgorgement in the amount of $2,193,565, plus prejudgment interest in the amount of $2,797,869, for a total of $4,991,434. Kasirer consented to the entry of the final judgment without admitting or denying the allegations contained in the Commission’s Complaint.

The Commission’s Complaint alleged that from February 1996 through August 1999, Kasirer and others ("the Defendants"), acting in concert, fraudulently offered and sold over $131 million of municipal revenue bonds to members of the public to finance the development of ten healthcare facilities by Heritage Housing Development, Inc. The Defendants offered and sold the bonds in question through a series of eleven offerings underwritten by the now-defunct Minnesota securities dealer Miller & Schroeder Financial, Inc. The bonds were purchased by more than 1,800 investors residing in 36 States. Kasirer was the president of the company that selected the properties to be developed and then managed the Heritage facilities. The Complaint further alleged that Kasirer directed the wrongful commingling and diversion of millions of dollars of bond proceeds and concealed that practice from investors. The Complaint also alleged that Kasirer, acting knowingly or with a reckless disregard for the truth, was the primary author of bond prospectuses which misled investors, and personally profited from his scheme.

For additional information, see Litigation Releases Nos. 18774 and 19131.

From Forbes, Oct. 15, 2001:

Kasirer, who lives in a Beverly Hills home complete with a private tennis court, is no stranger to controversy. The Heritage hospital he helped manage in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. was accused by Medicare attorneys of overstating reimbursable Medicare costs by at least $8.7 million over three years. Kasirer says he knew nothing about it and his company was one of three to manage the hospital during that time.

The Internal Revenue Service is considering yanking the tax-exempt status of some bonds connected to three housing projects Kasirer helped develop in the early 1990s. The issue centers on arcane "tax-exempt arbitrage" rules. The IRS claims on one of the deals, Kasirer bought a chunk of the project’s tax-exempt bonds, and with another party backed them up with taxable U.S. government securities to ensure the debt was repaid (a process called "defeasance") and resold the securities for a profit. Kasirer insists he didn’t defease the bonds and lost money on the sales.

Nearly two years after the Heritage bonds defaulted bondholders are losing hope U.S. Trust can recover much. "I don’t know when was the last information I got about what they were doing," says Doris Archey, 74, a widow in Downey, Calif. who invested $250,000. "I guess they aren’t doing much."

On February 7, 1993, Robert Kasirer donated $1,000 to Senator Edward Kennedy.

I guess that’s not a crime.

From the UCLA Center on Aging newsletter June 2, 2000:

Robert Kasirer is the newest member of the UCLA Center on Aging’s Board of Trustees. He is the chair and CEO of HealthCareContinuum, LLC and its affiliate entities. The firm owns and operates acute care and psychiatric hospitals, and provides consulting and financial advisory services to companies in the specialty long term care industry. Kasirer is responsible for executive level direction and oversight of the company, including planning, financing, project and site selection, and establishment of business arrangements and strategic relationships.

From 1995 to early 1997, Kasirer was associated with a publicly traded healthcare company, where he was managing director of one of its subsidiaries and was a member of its Board of Directors. From 1986 to 1995, he developed retirement communities, assisted living facilities and healthcare facilities for not-for- profit owners as a fee developer, and owned an ancillary services healthcare company.

Kasirer earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1970, and a Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law in 1973. He is admitted to the New York Bar. He has lectured extensively, and has authored articles on the senior living industry.

From a recent news report:

Beverly Hills, CA: (Nov-24-07) The federal Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against Robert Kasirer, a Beverly Hills attorney, accusing him of hatching a scheme to defraud investors of tens of millions of dollars. The suit charged Kasirer of operating a Ponzi-type scheme to enrich himself and his associates. A suit was also filed against another defendant, Jerold Goldstein, who was described along with Kasirer as a primary architect of the scheme. Federal officials stated that $144 million in tax-exempt bonds were sold for two facilities in Florida, one in Chicago, one in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, and six in Fort Worth, Austin, Brownsville, Houston, east Houston and Texas City. The facilities were to be developed by Heritage Housing Development, a Los Angeles nonprofit created in 1993 that was controlled by Kasirer. Further, bond buyers were led to believe that proceeds from each bond offering would be used to finance one specific healthcare facility.

SEC officials stated that from the onset, the costs of developing the healthcare facilities, including payments to defendant Kasirer and some of his family members, outstripped the proceeds from the facilities’ respective bond offerings. The defendants covered the resulting cash shortfalls by operating a type of Ponzi scheme, commingling bond proceeds and diverting bond proceeds from more recent offerings to pay the expenses of earlier projects. As part of a settlement reached, a US district court in California issued a final judgment, ordering Kasirer to pay $5 million, resolving the fraud suit.

From afikimfoundation.org:

If Ever There Was a Time to Reach, Teach And Inspire,
It Would Be The High Holidays.

For the third time in two years, we are offering a new work that will bring renewed dimensions of understanding and inspiration to people who are seeking to expand and deepen their relationship to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.

The Rosh Hashanah Machzor with commentary culled from the teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l, is the second volume in a truly momentous series. For over half a century, Rabbi Soloveitchik was one of the most influential figures in American Jewry and for decades he delivered an annual series of lectures related to virtually every aspect of the High Holidays; their themes, prayers and inner meaning.

Last year, K’hal Publishing, in cooperation with the Orthodox Union, published the Kasirer Edition Mesoras HaRav: Yom Kippur Machzor with commentary drawn from Rabbi Soloveithchik’s teachings. The Kasirer Yom Kippur Machzor reached the four corners of the world.

In cooperation with Robert Kasirer of Los Angeles, California, who through his generosity has endowed the Kasirer Edition volumes to the honor and memory of loved ones, The Afikim Foundation has participated in the dissemination of the volume to college campus minyanim nationwide, at no charge.