March 6, 2021 | 6:24 p.m
Dozens of New York’s Jewish organizations have had their backside strains bolstered by two businessmen accused of laundering billions for a Burisma-connected Ukrainian oligarch, public data present.
Mordechai Korf, 48, and Uri Laber, 49, have shelled out greater than $11 million to almost 70 yeshivas and non secular charities in Brooklyn and throughout the state, in accordance to federal tax filings.
But Korf and Laber are extra than simply beneficiant benefactors: since 2006, the Miami-based pair have allegedly been middlemen for Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, funneling $4 billion of his ill-gotten features to purchase property and companies within the U.S, in accordance to three civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in Florida federal court docket.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken banned Kolomoisky and his instant household from America, citing Kolomoisky’s “significant corruption.” The billionaire has lengthy been accused of repeatedly raiding PrivatBank, a Ukrainian financial institution he as soon as co-owned, authorized filings present.
Kolomoisky, who constructed his fortune throughout the lawless years instantly following the autumn of the Soviet Union, reportedly has a controlling curiosity in Burisma, the Ukrainian oil and gasoline company which put President Biden’s son, Hunter, on its board of administrators in 2014 at a wage of $50,000 per 30 days. Kolomoisky dispatched his non-public military to take over firms and destroy a Russian-owned oil and gasoline refinery in Dnipropetrovsk in 2014, in accordance to stories.
Kolomoisky and a companion, Gennadiy Boholiubov, are accused of taking out billions in fraudulent loans and features of credit score from PrivatBank, which they co-owned, funneling the money by means of a “web of entities” created by Korf and Laber.
Korf and Laber — who met Kolomoisky a long time in the past whereas working and volunteering within the Ukrainian province he ruled — gave a complete of greater than $1.4 million to Brooklyn’s Jewish Educational Media, and almost $1 million to the Manhattan-based Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States, nine countries which banded together after the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union].
Laber is listed as a board member of Jewish Educational Media, a nonprofit which promotes the work of the late Grand Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, the Ukraine-born non secular chief of the Chabad Lubavitcher motion.
Colel Chabad, a Brooklyn charity for orphans and widows, acquired $466,647 between 2006 and 2013 from Laber Foundation Inc., whereas the Korf Family Foundation Inc. gave $476,000 between 2006 and 2013 to the charity.
Authorities haven’t accused the charities of wrongdoing.
Korf and Laber additionally face a civil lawsuit in Delaware from PrivatBank, and will have to forfeit millions price of actual property and firms they bought if the federal lawsuits from the DOJ succeed. No legal fees have been filed.
While it’s unclear if the 2 males used their charity connections to launder money, consultants say nonprofits are sometimes used to keep away from taxes and conceal funds.
“Charities could certainly be part of an incestuous collection of legal entities that make it very difficult to follow the money,” stated Laurie Styron, government director of Charity Watch.
If the DOJ’s lawsuits towards Korf and Laber succeed, the charities could also be compelled to return the money, even when the organizations did nothing flawed themselves, stated Styron.
The Post reached out to no less than 10 of the organizations Korf and Laber donated to, together with Jewish Educational Media, however messages weren’t returned.
“Mr. Korf and Mr. Laber have never had any dealings with laundered money and any allegations to the contrary are patently false and irresponsible,” stated legal professional Marc Kasowitz. “They are very proud of their longstanding charitable contributions and the good that those contributions have brought.”
A lawyer for Kolomoisky didn’t return messages.
Members of the Jewish Lubavitcher sect who stay in sprawling Miami mansions, Korf and Laber have robust ties to Brooklyn and the Ukraine, the place they met. Korf’s dad and mom had been tasked by Schneerson to set up a Lubavitcher group in Miami, in accordance to The Forward.
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