from The Jewish Week:
FBI Enters Probe In Fraud At Holocaust Claims Conference
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the widening probe into allegedly fraudulent Holocaust-era claims that could have bilked the German government out of millions of dollars, The Jewish Week has learned.
… The Claims Conference said the German government had been defrauded out of $350,000 and identified the thieves as primarily Russians now living in Brooklyn.
Roman Kent, treasurer of the Claims Conference, said Monday that no arrests have yet been made but that the FBI became involved “a few months ago” when it “became more and more clear that it [the amount of money involved] might be more than we originally estimated.”
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The Claims Conference should have outsourced its claims processing years ago. There are many excellent firms who specialize in this work. It would have cost far less, the firms have sophisticated fraud protection in place like the credit card companies, and if g-d forbid something like this happened, they would have had insurance to pay the money back to the fund or other survivors. Let’s face it – if the attitude was not so haphazard and lackadaisical at the top of the Claims Conference – this never would have happened.
Are there criminal background checks on all employees, are their fingerprints checked against the FBI? These are all standard in the claims processing industry.
The proof is in the cholent (excuse my metaphor) if someone’s job depended on getting this done perfectly – it would be done perfectly. The evidence is in – nobody’s job depends on the safeguarding and accurate processing of the claims – because if it did – there would be many terminations of senior executives at the Claims Conference – and there are not.
They treat this like a personal business with no client who demands excellence – instead of the sacred trust that it is.
Hire a PR firm to make excuses – great…..but what is the fix?
I say – outsource processing to insured and bonded professionals and save money for the survivors and programs!
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