Perry to serve 10 years for defrauding Holocaust survivors

Attorney Yisrael Perry convicted of theft; stole 320 million German marks from Israelis seeking compensation after surviving Shoah.

By RON FRIEDMAN
Yisrael Perry 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Yisrael Perry 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
A seven-justice panel of the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the request of Yisrael Perry, an attorney convicted of defrauding Holocaust survivors of almost NIS 1 billion, for a retrial on his theft conviction. As a result Perry will continue serving out the remainder of his 10-year sentence.
“Based on the existing evidence brought before the district court and before this court in the subsequent appeal, we can determine that Perry and his organization took over the property of their clients by fraud and by taking advantage of the trust placed in them,” ruled newly-retired Supreme Court justice Ayala Procaccia in the verdict. “They deviated from the agreement with their clients and pocketed their money with intent to deny their clients of it for good. Their deeds constitute theft and theft by an agent. In their deeds the appellants harmed important social values and norms, which the criminal law seeks to protect.”
RELATED:Lawyer who defrauded Holocaust survivors to be jailed immediately
In 2007, Perry was found guilty of stealing 320 million German marks from tens of thousands of clients of the Organization for the Realization of the Social Security Treaty, a company established and controlled exclusively by Perry. Its declared mission was to assist Israelis in receiving compensation from Germany in the form of public pensions.
After six years in the courts, Perry was convicted of theft, fraud, obstruction of justice and withholding vital information from his clients in order to deprive them of their money.
A year ago Perry petitioned the court to rehear his case, arguing that it was unique in that, unlike regular theft, where the victims lose money, his victims actually received large sums of money because all the risk that was involved was borne entirely by the company.


Related Tags
Theft