Popular rabbi signs plea bargain in bribery case

A celebrity rabbi embroiled in a number of graft investigations agreed early Wednesday to testify against a top police official accused of taking bribes, in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto signed a formal plea bargain agreement with the state prosecutor 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 who was charged with bribery and obstruction of justice, will receive a light sentence of no more than a year in jail plus fines, although his attorney is attempting to ensure that his client does not serve any time in prison, Ynet news reported on Wednesday.

The formal agreement comes several months after Pinto, whose charity at the heart of the corruption and bribery investigation runs operations in both Israel and the US, arrived in Tel Aviv from New York to continue negotiations for a plea bargain.

In May, when he returned to Israel, it was reported that police initially doubted whether Pinto could deliver the necessary evidence to make the deal worthwhile for prosecutors, and required him to pass a polygraph test before testifying. Since signing the plea bargain, Pinto will now be questioned under caution, Israeli media reported.

The investigation of Pinto grabbed headlines in Israel in January after his lawyers alleged to the State Attorney’s Office that police anti-corruption head 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 caused Arviv to take an extended vacation and then, in February, to resign after 36 years of service in the police, while proclaiming his innocence.

Earlier in February, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein 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 — is 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 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.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.