Brooklyn rabbi sentenced in NJ court for laundering scheme
A Brooklyn rabbi broke down and sobbed in Trenton federal court Tuesday afternoon as a federal judge sentenced him to nearly four years in prison for laundering close to a million dollars in what he thought were illicit funds through a religious charity.
“I have been living in shame. It is hell for me every day,” Rabbi Mordchai Fish said as he held his head in his hands during a rambling statement to the court. “I don’t blame anyone but myself. I was wrong. I was so very wrong.”
Fish was one of five rabbis arrested in a massive money-laundering and political corruption sting three years ago that stretched from southern New Jersey to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he leads Congregation Sheves Achim (in Hebrew, “Seven Brothers”) on Avenue H and East 16th Street.