Nassau Rabbi Helped Blackmail Man For $7 Million: Prosecutors

A rabbi from Nassau County and a Queens man were charged on Monday with working together to extort $7 million from a man in exchange for not giving allegedly incriminating information to the police.

Rabbi Igal Haimoff, 54, of Lawrence, and Mark Weissman, 67, of Flushing, were arrested on Monday and appeared before a judge in federal court. They were each released on $250,000 bond.

“As alleged, Haimoff and Weissman attempted to characterize the millions of dollars they expected to receive from their extortionate threat as a charitable donation,” said United States Attorney Richard Donoghue. “This office, along with our law enforcement partners, will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who seek to hide their criminal conduct behind the cloak of a charity.”

According to authorities, starting in early 2017, Weissman told the victim that unless he paid $6 million, another person would give incriminating evidence to police. Donoghue said that Weissman got the help of Haimoff, who allowed his charity to receive the money to disguise the transaction. According to Donoghue, the two wrote and sent a fake charitable donation letter to the person they were blackmailing. The letter read:

"Thank you so much for your pledge of $6,000,000 towards our building campaign. Your generous donation will enable us to complete the construction of our Yeshiva building which is so vital for the continued growth of our Queens community. It is the generosity of donors such as yourself that provide us with the strength and ability to continue being there for the community. Thank you for being our partner in this most important endeavor. For your convenience, you can fire (sic) the funds to our bank account as
follows [bank account details]."

However, authorities say that Haimoff and Weissman were actually writing to an undercover FBI agent, not their intended victim.

Later, Weissman told their victim the demand was increasing to $7 million, Donoghue said. The FBI agent, acting as the victim, said they would provide the money if Haimoff could provide a letter about why the "donation" had increased. Haimoff did, writing how the increased donation would allow them to double the number of children they could admit to the yeshiva, Donoghue said.

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