Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the disgraced leader of the Shuvu Banim sect of the Breslov hassidic community, was convicted on Monday by the Jerusalem District Court on charges of fraud, exploitation, attempted intimidation, tax offenses and money laundering.
This is Berland’s second criminal conviction after he was convicted of indecent assault against two women in 2016, and assault against the husband of one of the women he abused who he had beaten up for reporting the issue to the press.
Berland, 84, will receive an 18-month prison sentence and will be fined NIS 2,415,000.
He is scheduled to begin his prison service on October 28 this year.
Berland’s latest conviction was the result of a plea deal between his lawyers and the state attorney’s office through the court’s mediation.
According to the conviction document, Berland defrauded numerous individuals with severe medical problems, or their relatives, who had turned to him for spiritual help to cure them.
The conviction lists eight occasions in which Berland told those who turned to him for help that if they paid him between NIS 5,000 and NIS 20,000 they or their loved ones would recover from whatever illness they were suffering.
In some of these cases, when the patient did not recover shortly after payment was made, Berland made further guarantees and promises of their recovery and took additional payment.
Berland knew that he did not have the power to cure ill people but took the money regardless, the conviction states.
He was convicted for tax fraud for failing to report his income from this fraudulent scheme, and from other endeavors such as giving blessings and various consultation services.
“Eliezer Berland was convicted in accordance with his confession of fraud and exploitation for having taken advantage of people in distress, misrepresented himself, and deceived them so that they would pay him tens of thousands of shekels in return for his promise of recovery for the sick, the resurrection of the dead, release from prison, and more, as well as financial crimes of tax fraud, by concealing income of tens of millions of shekels, and for money laundering,” said the state attorney’s Jerusalem District office.
“The confession and conviction within the framework of the plea bargain strike an appropriate balance between the severity of the crimes and the importance of confession and taking responsibility by Berland at a relatively early stage in the process, and his personal circumstances, specifically Berland’s age and health status,” the office further stated.