Ezra Sheinberg, the rabbi of the Orot Hari community in Safed, who was convicted of serious crimes against women and sent to 7.5 years in prison, tried to defraud his victims through a fictitious alimony claim of about one million shekels - but the plan was exposed and failed.
Scheinberg was convicted, based on his confession, of a plea bargain for serious offenses and attempting to obstruct justice. He was released from prison after serving his sentence and currently lives with his wife in Safed.
According to a report by Elinor Shirkani-Kofman in Israel Hayom, when it came time to pay compensation to his victims in the amount of over two million shekels, Sheinberg implemented a sophisticated plan. In the first stage, his wife demanded alimony from him in the amount of 941,302 shekels in order to create a debt in "priority law," which would take precedence over the victims' debts, even though they lived together.
The woman had not taken any real collection actions for years, and Sheinberg chose not to defend himself against the lawsuit.
In the second stage, Sheinberg transferred assets to his family members. His 19-year-old son purchased an apartment in Katzrin for NIS 1.2 million, and Sheinberg walked away from his mother's inheritance for NIS 320,000 in favor of his sister. All of this was done while the family was supposedly in financial distress.
According to the report, the crucial detail was revealed when the woman testified in court. She said, “He wanted me to file for child support right away. I was in complete denial.” It then emerged that Sheinberg himself had initiated the child support claim, a fact that exposed the fictitious nature of the claim.
The trustee, Attorney Uri Gil, recognized the suspicious pattern and wrote in his application to the court: “There are few cases in which the signs of fraud are so prominent.”.
The court accepted the trustee's position and dismissed the fictitious lawsuit. The judge ruled harshly: “The purpose of filing the lawsuit for alimony was not to support the individual's wife and children, but to create a debt in a prior judgment that would override the creditors' entitlement.” The judge added that this was ”conduct by the parties that amounted to fraud or collusion.”.
Finally, the trustee, Attorney Gil, succeeded in collecting approximately 1.6 million shekels for the victims through several requests against members of Sheinberg's family.
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