GREEN BACKER PLEADED TO DIRTY-MONEY SCHEME
By GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, September 8th 2001, 2:23AM
A former yeshiva official involved in laundering money for a
mob-controlled strip club helped organize a big endorsement for mayoral
candidate Mark Green, the Daily News has learned.
As part of a
deal with prosecutors, Isack Rosenberg pleaded guilty in October 1999
to bankruptcy fraud and testified last month in Atlanta about a scheme
to launder cash through a Brooklyn yeshiva for the owners of the Scores
strip club.
In July, Rosenberg stood next to a smiling Green on
the steps of City Hall, claiming to represent the Satmar community, one
of the biggest Hasidic sects in New York.
Until late yesterday
afternoon, a photo of Rosenberg standing next to Green was posted on
the candidate's Web site, along with a story that quoted Rosenberg as
saying, "our community is united behind Mark."
The photo was removed from the site less than an hour after The News contacted the Green campaign for comment.
Spokesman Joe DePlasco said the campaign had no clue that Rosenberg was
involved with the owners of Scores or had pleaded guilty to bankruptcy
fraud.
The day he stood next to Green on the City Hall steps, Rosenberg was on probation from that charge, records show.
Rosenberg was on the board of the Yeshiva Yetev Lev D'Jerusalem in June
1995 when a lawyer connected to Scores wrote two checks totaling
$100,000 to the yeshiva.
Rosenberg said that as a yeshiva
director, he had the school write $100,000 in checks to his lumber
firm. He then withdrew $95,000 in cash from the business and delivered
it to ex-Scores owner Lyle Pfeffer.
Pfeffer - who pleaded guilty
to fraud charges and is cooperating with the FBI - says he delivered
the cash to Gambino soldier Craig DePalma. DePalma told an Atlanta
federal grand jury that he gave the cash to John A. (Junior) Gotti.
Rosenberg's lawyer, Samuel Burstyn, insisted his client did not know
the money was going to Gotti. He said it was just a loan and that
Rosenberg used the yeshiva to ensure he'd be repaid.
Two other Satmar leaders involved in the Green endorsement also have problems in their pasts:
Jack Brach, also quoted on the Green Web site yesterday, was convicted
of wire fraud in Wisconsin and sentenced to 27 months in jail.
Abe Wieder, mayor of the Orange County Hasidic town of Kiryas Joel,
also helped arrange the Green endorsement. He is under investigation by
the Orange County district attorney into allegations of voter fraud.
Brach and Wieder could not be reached yesterday for comment.
