3 Sentenced In Kidnapping, Murder Plot

MONROE, NY — Three men with connections to Kiryas Joel were sentenced Thursday in connection with a kidnapping and murder plot. Joon H. Kim, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Aharon Goldberg, Shimen Liebowitz, and Binyamin Gottlieb were sentenced today for their respective roles in devising and covering up a plot to kidnap and murder an individual in order to obtain a religious divorce for that individual’s wife.

Goldberg, 56, pleaded guilty on Sept. 28 to conspiring to commit kidnapping and murder for hire. Liebowitz, 26, pleaded guilty on July 27 to conspiring to commit extortion. Gottlieb, 34, pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 to helping to conceal the plot from law enforcement. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Goldberg to three years in prison, Liebowitz to two years in prison and Gottlieb to one year’s probation.

In addition to their prison sentences, Goldberg of Bnei Brak, Israel, and Liebowitz of Monroe, were each sentenced to three years of supervised release. Gottlieb is from Airmont.

Liebowitz is a member of the Satmar community in Kiryas Joel. Goldberg is an Israel-based rabbi who also maintains a position of prominence in Kiryas Joel.

Kim said the defendants were involved in a terrifying plot to kidnap, and ultimately to kill, their intended victim.

“Fortunately, the person they hired to carry out their crime alerted the FBI, and now the defendants have been held accountable for their crimes,” he said.

According to the complaints and statements made during court proceedings and in public filings Jewish religious law as observed in certain communities, says that in order to effect a divorce, a husband must provide his wife with a document known as a “get.” A woman whose husband will not consent to a divorce is known as an “agunah.” In the absence of the husband’s issuing a get, an agunah may be released from her marriage only through the husband’s death.

In or about July 2016, Goldberg and Liebowitz began working to orchestrate the kidnapping of an individual who refused to grant a get to his wife. The purpose of the kidnapping was to imprison and torture the him until he agreed to give his wife a get.

Gottlieb, an associate of Goldberg and Liebowitz, placed them in touch with a private investigator, whom Goldberg and Liebowitz solicited to personally carry out the kidnapping and torture in exchange for payment. Unbeknownst to Goldberg and Liebowitz, however, the private investigator reported the plot to the FBI and recorded several of his meetings with the defendants.

In July 2016, the private investigator met with Goldberg, in Gottlieb’s presence, to discuss the kidnapping plot. Although Liebowitz was not present at the beginning of the meeting, he arrived and joined the conversation after several minutes. The private investigator made an audio recording of the meeting using a hidden recording device.

During the meeting and after Liebowitz arrived, the parties discussed, among other things, the logistics of the kidnapping plot, including the possibility of kidnapping the victim in the United States and holding him captive in a cage, or kidnapping him in Ukraine and transporting him to Israel.

Liebowitz also provided the private investigator with details to assist the him in carrying out the kidnapping plot. During the meeting, Goldberg and Liebowitz also agreed to advance the private investigator $25,000 to assist in efforts to plan the kidnapping. Within days of this initial meeting, an envelope containing approximately $25,000 cash was delivered to the private investigator.

On or about August 9, 2016, the private investigator met with Liebowitz and Goldberg in Kiryas Joel. During this meeting, the private investigator, Goldberg, and Liebowitz discussed additional details of the kidnapping plan, including logistics and the cost associated with a plan to kidnap the Intended Victim overseas. This conversation was also recorded, authorities said.

On August 12, 2016, the private investigator again met with Liebowitz and Goldberg, at which time they provided him with an additional payment of more than $20,000 for use in making arrangements for the kidnapping. In this meeting, which was also recorded, the private investigator, Goldberg and Liebowitz further discussed their plan to kidnap the victim in the United States and to obtain the get from him in this country.

Subsequent to the August 12, 2016, meeting, the private investigator had additional conversations with Goldberg, in which Goldberg discussed his desire not merely to kidnap the intended victim, but also to kill him.

On August 25, 2016, the private investigator met Liebowitz in Central Valley. During the meeting, Liebowitz paid the private investigator an additional sum of about $12,000 to carry out the kidnapping. Also during the meeting, the private investigator spoke by phone with Goldberg, who was still in Israel, about the kidnapping plan, which the private investigator and Goldberg referred to in code as a “wedding,” as well as Goldberg’s desire that the private investigator kill the intended victim. This conversation was also recorded.

On or about Sept. 2, 2016, the private investigator had another recorded conversation with Liebowitz, during which Liebowitz indicated his understanding that the intended victim would be murdered as part of the plan.

Subsequently, on Sept. 6, 2016, Liebowitz and Goldberg again met with the private investigator. During that meeting, Liebowitz and Goldberg paid the private investigator an additional $16,000. The private investigator led Liebowitz and Goldberg to believe that the private investigator had captured the intended victim, had tortured him in order to force him to provide a get, and that the he had so far refused to do so.

The private investigator discussed options for what to do with the intended victim given his unwillingness to give the get. Goldberg replied by referencing his prior directive to the private investigator to kill the intended victim, saying, “I’ve told you whatever I’ve told you, and I even got an OK from one of the rabbis. He [the intended victim] cannot slip out of your fingers.”

Liebowitz then interjected, “I’m on his side, whatever he says I’m with him.” Goldberg resolved that the only way forward was to put a bullet in the intended victim. Liebowitz interjected that if the man were to be killed, arrangements would have to be made to ensure that there was a witness who could verify that he was dead (and that the wife could remarry) without leading back to Liebowitz and his co-conspirators.

Liebowitz later stated, “Somebody is going to need to tell a rabbi that I have saw” with respect to the death of the man. Goldberg and the private investigator then discussed the possibility of burying the intended victim and seeing to it that his body was exhumed and identified using DNA. Liebowitz interjected, “There is no way to put him out on the street somewhere?” The September 6 conversation ended with FBI agents arresting Liebowitz and Goldberg.

On Sept. 11, 2016, FBI agents interviewed Gottlieb about his knowledge of the plot. At that time, Gottlieb stated that he had no knowledge of any conversation where the plot was discussed, despite the fact that he had been present at the initial meeting between the private investigator, Goldberg, and Liebowitz.

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