January 4, 2022 – SAN DIEGO – Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, former director at Chabad of Poway, was sentenced in federal court today to fourteen months in custody for his years-long, multi-million-dollar schemes to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, several San Diego Fortune 500 companies, and multiple public and private agencies. He was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $2,834,608.
According to his plea agreement, while Rabbi Goldstein was director of the Poway synagogue, he received at least $6.2 million in phony contributions to the Chabad and affiliated charities and secretly refunded up to 90 percent of the donations to the “donors.” After Rabbi Goldstein provided these donors with fake receipts, they illegally claimed huge tax deductions for these nonexistent donations, and the rabbi kept about 10 percent – more than half a million dollars over the course of the fraud – for himself. Tax losses to the IRS were more than $1.5 million.
Rabbi Goldstein also admitted that he defrauded three different Fortune 500 companies by tricking them into matching supposed charitable donations of their employees. Working with the employees, Rabbi Goldstein fabricated receipts and then secretly returned their fake “donations.” This allowed the employees to claim tax deductions for the completely fabricated donations, and allowed Rabbi Goldstein to collect the companies’ matching funds—including some that matched double their employees’ donations. Rabbi…
