Hasidic school officials plead guilty to fraud in $3M Brooklyn school lunch scheme

March 30, 2018 By Paul Frangipane Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Elozer Porges outside Brooklyn’s federal court. Eagle photos by Paul Frangipane

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Two former officials of a Brooklyn Hasidic school system pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud at Brooklyn’s federal court on Friday for scamming the federal government over $3 million in a school lunch scheme.

Elozer Porges and Joel Lowy, former administrators at the Central United Talmudic Academy (CUTA) in Brooklyn, admitted to claiming inflated amounts of meals at three schools to reap reimbursements from a federal program.

Porges, 44, told Judge Nicholas Garaufis that he saw no personal benefit from the $3,256,338 scam to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Instead, the act was aimed to benefit the students at the schools, Porges said.

“I submitted an inflated claim of supper service … knowing the amounts of meals claimed were not accurate,” Porges said in court with men of the Hasidic community supporting him in the audience. “I know this is wrong and I’m sorry for having done this.”

Specifically, as the former executive director of the school system with Lowy, 29, former assistant director, the pair took advantage of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The federal program is designed to assist schools and other institutions to provide meals to children in need.

Once the Brooklyn school system was accepted into the program, the administrators submitted claims between 2013 and 2015 that students were receiving dinners, when in fact they were not. Law enforcement interviews with kitchen staff confirmed that no dinners were served, according to court documents.

The pair submitted claims from schools at 762 Wythe Ave., 25 Franklin St. and 84-88 Sandford St., part of CUTA.

Porges faces up to around four years in prison and Lowy faces up to about three, based on estimated sentencing guidelines. The maximum prison sentence their charge yields is 20 years. They will also be ordered to jointly pay full restitution from the losses.

Both out on bail, Porges is scheduled to be sentenced on July 18 while Lowy is slated for sentencing on July 25.

Attorneys for each of them declined to comment outside the courtroom.