Aish NY Vs. Jacob Fetman

Kings County Index: 022057/2013

Here is a summary of the events relating to this "arbitration":

As you read this please keep in mind that its not my intention to besmirch Aish or any of the hard working and dedicated employees of this fine organization. It hurts me that many people that could have stopped this process didn't.

The following is a time line of the events that led to the disastrous confirmation of Rabbi Cohen's 'determination'.

August, 2013: Our Daughter Sarah’s engagement is announced.

Sept. 26th, 2013 - Sarah’s Wedding date of Nov. 18^th is announced and invitations are sent.

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013 – A question and an attempt to resolve a dispute regarding the lease for 150 West 46^th St. was faxed over to Rabbi D. Cohen (a letter explaining the details for the dispute requesting his input as to whether the lease is binding or not) – Rabbi Cohen replied to Fetman via phone that all parties need to come in and see him at his home office to adjudicate this matter.

Here is a scanned copy of the letter faxed over to Rabbi Cohen

Sunday, October 13^th, 2013 - A formal hearing is held at Rabbi Cohen’s home attended by Rabbi Cohen, Rabbi Greenman, David Markowitz Jacob Fetman & Mr. Sam Grossman - Aish NY landlord.

At some point in the discussion it was clear that a legally binding lease was signed by Fetman, Rabbi Greenman asks Mr. Grossman to leave, as he wants to continue discussing with Rabbi Cohen Fetman's personal responsibility for the lease payments, and goes on to accuse Fetman of obligating Aish to the lease payments which Greenman say he never authorized. Furthermore, Greenman claims that Fetman did other things without his knowledge and may have been stealing from Aish. Fetman denies any accusations and it is agreed that a forensic accountant will be hired to review Aish accounting. Greenman fires Fetman without any hearing or evidence ever presented.

We sign an official agreement that Rabbi Cohen is an acceptable arbitrator to both parties (Yitz Greenman and Yaakov Fetman)

Original Arbitration agreement - Sunday 10/13/2013

In the following days, despite the extreme time of Fetman daughter's getting married, Fetman communicates with Victor Lipnitsky, the forensic accountant, over the phone and email a number of times, providing all available accounting records from Aish, including Project Inspire account which was an account that was not audited because Project Inspire was never a project of Aish HaTorah NY but Aish International - and therefor some of the activity in that account (which Project inspire people knew about) was not incorporated into Aish NY accounting (see detailed explanation here). Mr. Lipnitsky requests and receives all of Fetmans available bank records for the past 7 years.

Tuesday, October 22^nd, 2013 – a follow-up meeting at Rabbi Cohen’s office is attended by Rabbi Greenman, Victor Lipnitsky (forensic accountant), Stuart Schabes Esq. representing Aish HaTorah and Jacob and Tammy Fetman (at the insistence of Rabbi Cohen) – at the meeting the Fetmans were made to sign letters prepared by attorney Schabes giving their socials and Dates of births for Jacob, Tammy, Sarah (20), Ariella (18), Nisan (14) and Brenda (11)

At this meeting Mr. Schabes, Mr. Lipnitsky and Rabbi Greenman accuse Jacob Fetman of stealing money from Aish HaTorah – the evidence being the large balances in the Merkaz accounts and hedge fund (approx. $2.4 million - which was mortgage loans from NYCB that was taken out March of 2013 - see below copies of the loan documents), relying on information gleaned from going through the Jacob Fetman’s Aish email account and bank statments.

A detailed list of the Fetman's ‘Net Worth’ was ordered by Rabbi Cohen.

Mr. Fetman is made to sign under duress a second arbitration agreement between Rabbi Greeman representing Aish Hatorah and Jacob Fetman at the insistence of attorney Schabes.

At the meeting Fetman is accused of taking as compensation more than he was supposed to. "Evidence" being that his reported compensation is only about $90K while it was said in the meeting that his actual compensation was $135K. Fetman explained that this is the way everyone at Aish NY was paid, and gave specific examples as Rabbi Greenman compensation of approximately $400K was only reported as $90K, the rest being his home mortgage which was paid by Aish, his wife earning $50K, school tuition and personal credit card charges on Aish credit cards. Other rabbis and managers had more than 50% of their compensation off the records (read other and older posts for details - its all there - here is a sample - redacted - of some of the Rabbis working for Aish NY; as you can see, the total salary is about $100K yet reported salary is about half, allowing some to qualify for healthy NY and Healthy NJ insurance plans as 'low income').

Rabbi Cohen insists that it means Fetman did something wrong and did not listen to the facts presented by Fetman. In fact, Cohen claims that other people wrong doing are not a part of this issue and he would only hear about Fetman's wrong doings.

Later, it was established that Greenman and R. Cohen had extensive ex-parte communication and wanted to intimidate Fetman not to present the truth. Greenman is a congregant at R. Cohen's son's synagogue in Passaic NJ. and Greenman had other dealings with R. Cohen - the 'neutral' arbitrator.

Cohen threatens Fetman that the wedding will be cancelled if they don't sign the second arbitration agreement (as the first arbitration was on Sunday, the attorney was trying to undue the legal debate if the arbitration is valid). Fetman insists that he did nothing wrong and every donation and every expense of Aish NY is and always was properly recorded.

Arbitration agreement 10/22/2013

Following the 10/22/13 meeting Mr. Sam Grossman, Aish landlord, tells Jacob Fetman that he has discussed this case with Rabbi Cohen and Rabbi Cohen divulged that Jacob ‘admitted’ to theft.

Friday, October 25, 2013: Jacob submits a statement of net worth to Mr. Lipnitzky via email - showing the properties belonging to Y&T, S&A, Merkaz and Fetman's parents - all noted as to who owns them.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013: Jacob and Tammy Fetman are summoned to Rabbi Cohen for an update. Rabbi Greenman, Mr. Schabes and Mr. Lipnitzky are present. At this meeting, Mr. Lipnitzky states that he reviewed the Fetmans personal and Merkaz bank statements which showed over 4 million dollars worth of transactions between 2008 and October 2013. Fetman explains that most of the activity could be attributed to the refinancing of two buildings worth 2.4 million and a single transfer of the $2.4 million into Merkaz. Fetman says that everything has an explanation - however he is not given the chance to explain. Lipnitsky also accuses Fetman of not cooperating and being slow in providing documents. Fetman explains that he requested information from the various banks and it takes time to get. Also, being that the wedding is approaching and we have family from Israel staying with us is hindering the effort to help. Fetman maintains that he already gave Aish power of attorney over all his accounts (including personal) and therefor, if they require anything they can just get any statements themselves. Attorney Schabes presents the credit reports for the Fetman family and Greenman charged that ’only a thief would have 50 credit cards’(Over 25 years of activity, many of which are store credit cards that have not been in use for years as well as inactive cards). Greenman states that he himself has only one card (lie - being that I know of four cards under Aish he uses) which 'proves' that he is righteous and Fetman is guilty. Greenman led the accusations with Rabbi Cohens vociferous consent.

Thursday, October 31, 2013- Jacob Fetman receives an email from Stuart Schabes for Victor Lipnitzky, the forensic accountant for Aish HaTorah, with a bill of approximately $26,000, which I am told that Rabbi Cohen ruled should be paid by me.

Fetman is told that Rabbi Cohen ruled that in the interim, the liquid funds belonging to Merkaz (approx. $2.4 million in total) be put into an escrow. Initially about $500k which was invested by Merkaz in an Etrade account and approx. $1.8 million which was with the hedge fund.

Thursday, November 7, 2013- $152,500.00 is wired from Merkaz- the Center, Inc. to Ober Kaller escrow account per Rabbi Cohen's instructions to wire $500K to Stuart Shabes's escrow account.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013- $347,500.00 is wired from Merkaz -The Center, Inc. is wired to Ober Kaller, escrow account.

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013 – By direction and insistence of Rabbi Cohen, Jacob Fetman signs a document prepared by Mr. Schabes (received via email from Mr. Schabes) giving irrevocable authority of our Bayberry and Platinum Partners hedge fund account (held under Merkaz the Center, Inc.) valued at approximately $1.8 million dollars. This was done under extreme pressure from Cohen, Greenman and Schabbes, stating that if Fetman will not follow Cohen's directive the wedding will be cancelled."It will not be good for you, I order you to obey".

Monday, Nov. 18^th, 2013 – Sarah Fetman’s wedding

Nov. 19 – 24^th – “Sheva Brochot” week – the traditional seven nights celebrations following orthodox Jewish weddings

Wednesday, Nov. 20^th, 2013 – at approximately 4:40pm Rabbi Cohen called Mr. Fetman instructing him to come to his home IMMEDIATELY. I go to Rabbi Cohen’s house and was handed legal papers prepared by attorney Schabes giving Power of attorney to Rabbi Cohen and Mr. Schabes over all properties listed under my the original statement of Net worth’. Rabbi Cohen yells at me that he wants this document signed and notarized by tomorrow morning. I immediately call the forensic accountant and Mr. Schabes explaining that as was explained to them in detail earlier, I am not the owner of 3 of the properties and they belong to my parents. Tammy also called and emailed Mr. Schabes and Mr. Lipnitsky and we were told to sign the documents and as Rabbi Cohen can be heard in this phone conversation “we will deal with the legalities later”). At 6 PM we attend our daughter’s Sheva Brochot celebration.

Thursday, Nov. 21^st, 2013 – Tammy and Jacob Fetman receive emails and texts from Rabbi Greenman stating that Rabbi Cohen is livid with us for not complying right away – threatening us again with calling the in laws and spreading malicious lies about us. In desperation, we comply and take the documents to be notarized. Knowing how irate and upset Rabbi Cohen was, we attach a personal letter of explanation requesting a fair hearing and stating that during this week when we have many family members around us, he should please be understanding and give us some time. We promised to be completely on board and cooperative after the weekend when we would have the time and wherewithal to deal with this. We also reminded him that we fully agree to have an internal investigation clearing up any concerns. We drop off the papers at Rabbi Cohen’s house and within an hour, we get more communication from Rabbi Greenman that the papers were signed wrong and that we need to re-do it IMMEDIATELY and that Rabbi Cohen does not accept our apology or explanation. We stated that we signed the documents as requested. At approximately 6:00 pm, Rabbi Greenman emailed us a clear PDF version of what we had previously signed. The original version was faxed to Rabbi Cohen and was unclear and pages were broken up. That was the copy that Fetman received and notarized initially.

Friday, Nov. 22^nd, 2013- Tammy and Jacob rush to the bank to notarize the documents AGAIN! We drop it off by Rabbi Cohen, yet within an hour, we get emails and calls that again there was a problem with the notarization and that Rabbi Cohen was considering us to be in contempt as we had shown him blatant chutzpah. We were told that the documents sent to us were not printed properly (it was formatted to legal document sized not standard paper size, which we had no access to). They wanted us to reformat it and resubmit it NOW! Despite the hectic day and the presence of many guests all around us and inclement weather, we did re-notarize all the documents. (At 3:00 pm, the Shabbat Sheva Brachot would be hosted by our family and we were under extra pressure and time constraints.)

Wednesday, November 27^th, 2013- Wednesday- We meet with Mr. Dan Stein, attorney.

Monday, December 2^nd, 2013- We hire Mr. Stein as our attorney.

Monday, December 9, 2013:- Meeting with Rabbi Cohen at his home. Present are Rabbi Greenman, Stuart Shabes, Victor Lipnitzky, Jacob Fetman and Attorney Dan Stein.

Rabbi Cohen is incensed at the presence of Mr. Stein - (Mr. Stein's was a section chief at the US Attorney general office prior to his move to Richards Kibbe. In July 2014 Mr. Stein was rehired by the US AG western district as the chief council) Cohen yells at Fetman for bringing in an attorney and claims that this is "an admission of guilt". Fetman says that what happened in these meetings was a gross miscarriage of Jewish and legal procedures and everyone that participated in these meetings, intimidation and harassment, including R. Cohen should be jailed. R. Cohen is incensed. When Mr. Stein asks for copies of the arbitration agreements so that he can see them before having any meaningful discussion, he is told that they don't have them and will get back to him later. Rabbi Cohen excuses himself as he needed to leave for another obligation. Everyone is told that we will continue this arbitration at a later date. (see Stein's affidavit, Greenman affidavit in the court files)

December 12, 2013- Mr. Stein sends a revocation of original ‘Power of Attorney’ designating Rabbi Cohen and Stuart Schabes as agents for Jacob and Tammy Fetman and Merkaz the Center, Inc. to Rabbi Cohen and Stuart Schabes.

Dec 16, 2013 – 7:51PM – a Determination ("psak") from Rabbi Cohen on official Gvul Yaabetz synagogue letterhead is faxed to Mr. Stein's office. This determination is referring to some phantom accountant report supposedly showing that Fetman stole $2.4 million dollars from Aish (the funds in the hedge fund..). That 'report' never existed .

R. Cohen determination 12 16 2013

Dec 19, 2013 – 4:16PM – the typed text of Rabbi Cohen’s determination is faxed to Rabbi Cohen from Ober Kaler in Baltimore – which he signs.

R' Cohen Determination 'Clarification'

Dec. 24, 2013 - Aish NY hires Rimberg and Shusterman LLP who rush to court to have the court validate the determination of Rabbi Cohen.

In his 'Clarification' of his Determination Rabbi Cohen writes " Among the properties taken from Aish are:
4305 10th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11219
4301 10th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11219
1723 Ocean Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11230
1739 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230
1743 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn NY 11230
750 Washington Ave. Brooklyn NY 11238
1677 President St. Brooklyn NY 11213"

Rabbi Cohen never bothered to check for example WHEN the properties were purchased or how. Some, such as 4301 Tenth Ave. was purchased by Fetman parents many years prior to Fetman ever starting to work for Aish.

The $2.4 million that was in the hedge fund belonging to Merkaz is the proceeds of mortgages ($1.2M each on 750 Washington Ave. and 1677 President St. - see the loan documents here)

The following is a detailed explanation of each property. Much of the information appears on city records (ACRIS)

4301 Tenth Ave. - owned by Jacob Fetman was purchased on 12/18/1992 see here the deed to the property. This property in next door to Fetman parents (4303 Tenth Ave. ) and was purchased by Fetman parents and put in the name of Jacob Fetman while Fetman owed the value of the property to his parents.

4305 Tenth Ave. - was purchased by Fetman parents as 4305 Tenth Ave. Corp. see here the deed of transfer and on 10/27/2011 it was 'purchased' by Jacob Fetman from 4305 Tenth Ave. Corp. in order to provide mortgage financing to pay for 1723 Ocean Ave. which was purchased by Fetman parents for Merkaz. See here the deed of transfer from 4305 Tenth Ave. Corp to Jacob Fetman and here the mortgage loan document.

1743 Ocean Ave. - owned by Merkaz - initially purchased by Fetman on 3/18/1994 for $230K with a mortgage of $216K. This property was purchased years prior to Fetman's employment at Aish. The original mortgage was satisfied on 3/6/2003. A mortgage loan in the amount of $500K was taken Jan. 16, 2004, to pay for the purchase on 1739 Ocean Ave. (see later). In 2011 the property was deeded to Merkaz the Center.

750 Washington Ave. a 16 family apartment building was purchased by Y&T Management Corp. see the deed here on 7 23 1998. Purchase price - $ 445,000 and a mortgage was taken from Citibank in the amount of $147,923 Assumed from the seller and another mortgage from Citibank for $208,076 for a combined mortgage of $356,000 - which was 80% loan. Y&T was to pay at closing $89,000 - Y&T negotiated that it will get $25,000 credit for repairs, approximately $14,000 credit for security deposits held by the seller and and the rest of the principal was put in by the Fetmans and other family members from personal savings and credit card borrowing (those were the 0% APR offers for 12 months period days).
That original loan was paid off and satisfied in Jan. 2006 (here is the mortgage satisfaction note). Any profits from this building went into the purchase and construction on Merkaz the Center - the not for profit property at 1739 Ocean Ave. When construction was completed and interest rates dropped to an all time low, Y&T Management borrowed from NYCB $1.2 million - see the new mortgage loan documents here. to be invested in a hedge fund.

1677 President Street, a 20 family apartment building was purchased by S&A Realty Corp. on 4/13/1999 (deed here), Purchase price $550,000 with 80% financing mortgage taken from Citibank in the amount of $440,000. The payment at closing of $110,000 payment paid by credit from the seller in the amount of $35,000 for repairs, approximately $12,500 rent deposits and personal funds from the Fetmans and other family members, partially obtained from family loans and credit card borrowing. On 6/29/2009 the original loan from Citibank was paid off (here is the loan satisfaction note). Any income from S&A Realty went towards the purchase and construction of Merkaz the Center - the not for profit at 1739 Ocean Ave. When the construction project finished and interest rates were at all time low, S&A borrowed from NYCB $1.2 million to be put in a hedge fund to provide income to cover operations of Merkaz - the not for profit. Here is the new mortgage loan document.

1739 Ocean Ave. - was purchased on 8/18/2004 by the Fetmans for $550,000 - mostly financed by the $500,000 mortgage loan on 1743 Ocean Ave. (see above) and personal funds. This was to be the site of the not for profit that the Fetmans envisioned. It took a number of years to solidify the project and to gather funds from Y&T and S&A and approximately in 2008 construction began. The construction was funded by a mortgage taken on 1739 Ocean Ave. for a $422,500 and ongoing donations from Y&T and S&A.

1723 Ocean Ave. was purchased by Merkaz 8/2/2010 as a parsonage and was paid for by Fetman parents - mostly with the mortgage proceeds taken on 4305 Tenth Ave. $440,000 loan, another personal mortgage they took for $150,000 and their personal savings.

12/27/13 - Mr. Stein, upon learning of Aish trying to ratify this determination sent the attached letter to Rabbi Cohen - requesting as we did all along a fair and impartial bais din. (here is a copy of the letter.) Attempts to get Rabbi Hillel Weinberg, Rosh Yeshiva of Aish HaTorah and Rabbi Eric Coopersmith, CEO of Aish Jerusalem, board members and others to intervene in this move to court were not successful.

PLEASE INTERVENE!
DON'T LET THIS SHAM OF A PROCESS DESTROY ME AND MY FAMILY.
I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG.

IF YOU ARE NOT CONVINCED - LETS HAVE PROFESSIONALS REVIEW THE PURPORTED REPORT THAT RABBI COHEN MENTIONS WHICH WE KNOW NEVER EXISTED.

DESPITE MY EFFORTS TO GET NOTABLE PROFESSIONAL INVOLVED (see here a statement I signed to Mr. Mel Zachter, a top professional that agreed to review this case. Greenman and Aish NY did not agree to have him review the report.) Aish never agreed to have anyone review the information. As Mr. Shusterman, lawyer for Aish NY, commented to my attorney, why should they, it can only go down from Twenty Million dollars...

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN! DEMAND A FULL INVESTIGATION!

Call Victor Lipnitsky - the forensic accountant hired by Aish NY - get a copy of the 'report' Rabbi Cohen refers to in his Decision - of course there was never such report - and certainly we never received nor had a chance to review and challenge its findings. Mr. Lipnitsky's cell phone is 410-824-0149.

Contact me at jfetman@yahoo.com or 646-261-0200

Aish NY Vs. Jacob Fetman

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

A summary of this 'Arbitration'

Kings County Index: 022057/2013

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Project Inspire Part I

Wednesday, May 28, 2014