Popular rabbi convicted of bribery in plea bargain

A celebrity rabbi embroiled in a number of graft investigations pleaded guilty to charges of bribery on Tuesday as part of a plea bargain in which he is to receive a lighter sentence in exchange for testifying against a top police officer accused of accepting bribes from him.

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto told the Tel Aviv District Court that his attorney had read to him the charge sheet and that he would plead guilty to charges of bribery, attempted bribery, and obstruction of justice.

The court then formally convicted him of the charges. He is expected to be given no more than a year in prison plus fines, although earlier media reports suggested the Pinto’s attorney may also seek to have the jail time lifted from the final sentence.

Pinto’s appearance before the court had been briefly cast into doubt when he complained of chest pains immediately upon returning to Israel from the US on Monday. He was taken to Ichilov Hospital where doctors performed a cardiac catheterization that showed he did not suffer from a coronary.

Pinto remained in the hospital overnight for observation but then made his way to the courthouse to enter his guilty plea. The court ordered the rabbi to surrender his passport and not leave the country.

Last September Pinto signed a formal plea agreement with the state prosecutor under which he agreed to testify against Menashe Arviv, the former head of the police’s anti-corruption unit who is suspected of receiving benefits from businessmen associated with the rabbi.

In exchange Pinto, a kabbalist with a large and influential international following, was to receive a light jail sentence plus fines.

The investigation of Pinto grabbed headlines in Israel in January 2014 after his lawyers alleged to the State Attorney’s Office that Arviv had received inappropriate benefits. The lawyers offered the information in the hope of securing immunity from criminal charges for Pinto in an investigation against him over a charity fund and the alleged bribing of another policeman.

The scandal prompted Arviv to take an extended vacation, and then, the following month, to resign after 36 years of service in the police, although he proclaimed his innocence.

Earlier, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein had accepted the recommendation of the State Attorney’s Office that Pinto be charged for allegedly offering a $200,000 bribe to Deputy Inspector General Ephraim Bracha in return for information about an investigation into the Hayim Yoshiyahu charity fund to which police alleged he was connected.

Since 2011, Pinto, 39, who heads several charity organizations and Torah study institutions in the coastal city of Ashdod and in the US, has been the subject of a number of ongoing investigations, both by Israeli police and the FBI.

The rabbi — whose followers include Jay Schottenstein, chairman of the American Eagle Outfitters clothing company, and Israeli real estate mogul Jacky Ben-Zaken — was suspected of embezzlement of funds from an organization he oversaw. According to FBI suspicions, he was also the target of a blackmail attempt.

In April 2014 federal prosecutors brought charges against Republican US Rep. Michael Grimm for receiving large contributions from followers of Pinto, the congressman’s lawyer said at the time.

Grimm has acknowledged receiving $250,000 to $300,000 in contributions from followers of the rabbi.

Gavriel Fiske contributed to this report.