(Haaretz) — Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto is expected to sign a plea bargain by the end of the week, confessing that he attempted to bribe the commander of the Israeli national police fraud unit to receive information about an investigation against him. Barring surprise developments, Pinto is expected to admit to attempting to give hundreds of…
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto may have lost his home. And he could soon lose his synagogue. The embattled Israeli kabbalist is increasingly beset by legal and financial troubles, both in the United States and Israel. In recent weeks, new problems have kept piling up in New York courts. In late March, a bank filed a…
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto ordered a New York City police officer to arrest his top aide’s business rival, according to allegations in a civil complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court on February 19. The officer, Detective Eric Patino, allegedly said he would release the rival, an Israeli businessman named Tomer Shohat, if Shohat…
(Haaretz) — Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto is suspected of systematically collecting information about senior police officers, demanding that some of them be replaced, threatening an officer, offering bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and intimidating witnesses, according to a document prosecutors sent to Pinto and his wife, Rivka, a few weeks ago. Prosecutors are now…
(Haaretz) — The Justice Ministry department that investigates police misconduct is investigating the head of one of the police’s most prestigious units on suspicion of taking bribes from Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto and from businessmen who are disciples of the rabbi. The investigative material in the case has been given to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, as well…
The rabbinate is not known as a path to riches. But for several Israeli rabbis, it is just that. The ten wealthiest Israeli rabbis own a combined fortune of over $620 million, according to a recent ranking by Forbes Israel. Rabbi Pinchas Abuhatzeira is Israel’s richest rabbi by a long shot, with an estimated net…
What do Charlie Sheen’s children, an Israeli gangster, and Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto have in common? They were all at one Los Angeles wedding. Pinto, who conducted the ceremony, is the kabbalist who was under house arrest in Israel this fall after allegedly bribing a police officer. The bride was C.C. Fontana, reportedly a former…
The night I first met Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, I hardly noticed his wife. She opened the door when I arrived at their Manhattan townhouse, dressed all in black with her head covered. If she said anything at all, I didn’t think it important enough to write down. I was there to see her husband,…
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