Brooklyn Rabbi admits to defrauding Section 8 program, faces prison

A Brooklyn rabbi and his brother pleaded guilty yesterday to partaking in what the city’s Department of Investigation has called the largest individual case of tenant fraud it has ever probed, the New York Times reported. Rabbi Leib Glanz and his brother Menashe Glanz had unlawfully gained more than $220,000 worth of Section 8 subsidies over the past 15 years.

Menashe Glanz signed forms to recieve the subsidies for an apartment at 85 Ross Street in Brooklyn, but he and his family lived elsewhere. Instead, Rabbi Glanz, who was formerly a chaplain in New York City jails, lived in the apartment and paid the subsidies to the United Talmudical Academy that owned the apartment. Rabbi Glanz was the executive director of the UTA and signed papers for the benefits to be paid to the academy under the guise that his brother would reside in the apartment.

“That statement was false and I knew it was false because my brother and his family were not the tenants,” Rabbi Glanz said, adding, “When I signed the contract, I knew that what I was doing was wrong.”

Rabbi Glanz faces a maximum one-year sentence and his brother faces a maximum 10-year sentence. Their prison term will be decided Jan. 25. [NYT] — Adam Fusfeld