Schools allegedly used Israeli ID cards to inflate the number of students enrolled and receive more funding from the Education Ministry.
By JONAH MANDELMoney 311(photo credit: Bloomberg)
Six heads of three haredi educational institutions were arrested on Sunday morning on suspicion of defrauding the state of millions of shekels by submitting falsified enrollment forms.Four additional men were detained, and over a thousand fake identification cards, as well as the machinery to produce them, were confiscated in the joint operation by investigators from the Jerusalem District Police Central Unit and fraud detectives.RELATED:Ovadia Yosef slams maverick Shas MK AmsalemSteinitz: No deal was made over yeshiva stipendsPolice believe that the institutions – located in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Betar Illit and Jerusalem’s Me’a She’arim neighborhood – have for years been forging ID cards for people who are not enrolled in the yeshivot in order to receive monthly financial support from the Education Ministry, claiming that hundreds were studying at the yeshivot, when in fact only dozens were.The yeshivot allegedly were receiving money for these fictitious students, and police opened an inquiry to determine where the cash was going.A remand hearing will take place on Monday. Police are continuing their investigation, and expect more arrests.
