I understand that you were
told by Rabbi Greenman that Jacob Fetman is a pathological liar and a
thief. What you may not know is that Rabbi Greenman is telling you these
lies only to protect himself. He needs to try to damage my credibility
with you, so
that he can try to defend his own misconduct. But the truth is my
credibility does not matter, because the facts I wish to present to you
(and which I have tried to present in the past) are completely true and
verifiable. Even Mr Lipnitsky -- who has been
working to cover up much of this for the past few months – will have to
admit that much of what I am saying is true.
The fact is that Rabbi
Greenman has been manipulating you and the other donors to Aish New York
for years. He has repeatedly lied to you and other donors about Aish
NY’s program successes and the financials associated with these
programs.
You may not care that his
"salary" of $400,000 was paid, in part, through phony “grants” to his
kids’ schools (including university payments), which were, in fact,
payments of tuition for his benefit. You may not care that Aish was
paying the mortgage on
Rabbi Greenman’s house in Passaic, far in excess of what was reported
as parsonage on the organization’s 990s, or that Rabbi Greenman had me
use Aish funds to pay the catering hall for his daughter’s wedding, or
that Aish paid Marty Mayer, the caterer, for
Rabbi Greenman’s bar mitzvah. You may not even care that Rabbi
Greenman used Aish’s name and resources to raise funds for his sister
whose home was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. You may not care about any
of these examples of Rabbi Greenman’s deceit, or the
many others I could name.
I’m asking you to care,
however, about the way Rabbi Greenman has mistreated me. He devised a
vicious scheme and executed it against me weeks before we were making a
chasuna. He threatened to tell my daughter’s future in-laws that I was
under investigation
for stealing from Aish, because he knew full well that the mere hint of
such malicious gossip could derail the wedding. He calculated
(correctly, as it turns out) that days before the wedding I was so
vulnerable that when he threatened me I actually signed
our assets into an escrow managed by Aish’s attorney. He had that
attorney pressure me into signing away those assets, by making me think
that the “legalities” would be worked out later, when the reality was
that Rabbi Greenman and his attorney tricked me
into signing away properties that did not even belong to me. I was led
to believe that Rabbi Cohen, whom I had heard of and respected, would
listen to the facts and determine the real situation, but Rabbi Cohen
was poisoned by hours of conversations with
Rabbi Greenman away from the meetings we had, and acted in an extremely
partial way. After the second meeting we had, I felt that I needed an
attorney because of the legal documents I had been pressured into
signing under threats from Rabbi Greenman and Rabbi
Cohen. In the third meeting, Rabbi Cohen was very agitated that I had
hired an attorney and yelled at me and my attorney, stating that the
fact I hired an attorney was an admission of guilt on my behalf. My
attorney presented documents to Rabbi Cohen and
Rabbi Greenman revoking any and all legal documents that were signed by
me under duress. While it was agreed at the end of the meeting that we
would have a follow up meeting, within days, upon the insistence and
encouragement of Rabbi Greenman, Rabbi Cohen
issued a determination that I stole the outlandish amount of twenty
million dollars. Needless to say we don't have anywhere near that
amount of money.
Then, without any notice to
me or my attorney, Rabbi Greenman went to court on Christmas Eve and had
an order entered against me freezing all of the properties that I had
been pressured into signing over to him. I have offered repeatedly to
meet with Aish’s
attorneys to answer all of their questions – and to provide all of the
information I have about Rabbi Greenman’s misconduct – but they will not
meet with me. Meanwhile, Rabbi Greenman has been busy covering up his
tracks. It's difficult to cover up a salary
to his wife that can be traced directly to his pay check (as
he’s asked me to reduce the salary Aish reported for him on the books
and pay his wife instead). The years Aish was paying his mortgage is
easily traced. Even when he had his mortgage
interest lowered, Aish still didn't get a break. He had me continue to
pay the same amount as before and apply the rest to the principal. I
told Mr Lipnitsky and attorney Schabes about this months ago, but they
have not shown any interest in getting to the
truth, only in coming after me.
Rabbi
Greenman blackmailed me and extorted me. You have the ability and the
obligation to investigate this affair thoroughly. That’s all I'm asking
you to do, because I know that a full and fair investigation will bring
the truth to light.
Sincerely,
Jacob Fetman
646-261-0200
Please see below the original email that was sent to R. Hillel Weinberg, Rabbi Eric Coopersmith, Mr. Hochfelder and Mr. Kuflik:
On Dec 24, 2013, at 9:42 PM, Jacob Fetman <jfetman@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear Rosh HaYeshiva, Rabbi Coopersmith, Mr. Hochfelder and Mr. Kuflik,
Following accusations made against me by Rabbi Greenman / Aish Hatorah NY, I feel that in order to defend myself, I must submit the following information to you. Please understand that I attempted to resolve this with Rabbi Greenman by agreeing to see a respected Rabbi at a Din Torah. However, things spiraled out of control very quickly when Rabbi Greenman began to make false accusations against me and trumpeted up severe charges against me. The Din Torah which was supposed to be fair and impartial deteriorated after the very first meeting to false accusations. We were told that no contact should be attempted with the Rabbi without the other party being there, yet Rabbi Greenman constantly was discussing the case with Rabbi Cohen and I feel Rabbi Cohen lost any and all objectivity. After the very first meeting, Rabbi Cohen would not speak to me and in fact had communicated with me via Rabbi Greenman - relating how irate and upset he was with me.
Rabbi
Greenman claim that a forensic accountant determined that I stole 2.4
million dollars is patently false, based on misunderstanding of our accounting system
which I was ready and willing to explain
and substantiate. Rabbi Greenman and Rabbi Cohen arbitrarily decided
that the number is probably closer to 20 million dollars that was taken from
Aish NY! This is completely and utterly false! I am here to state vociferously that this is
an abject, outright lie!
I was asked in the first meeting and I produced my financial position (showing net worth of about $6M) including our real estate holdings. It will be a small effort to verify the accuracy of this information which can be verified and is 100% authentic. Practically ALL our value can be easily traced to real estate appreciation, our own home and 2 residential buildings I purchased approximately 18 and 15 years ago. This accusation is unsubstantiated and I have repeatedly welcomed a complete and thorough investigation. I am being condemned unfairly and I feel that I have no recourse but to report this entire fiasco to the authorities. My fear is that once the NY State AG and or the US attorney begins an investigation into these accusations, it will open up a Pandora’s Box of troubles for the entire organization. The accusation is so outlandish and patently false that I feel it will cause great Chilul Hashem with the authorities and that's why I feel compelled to approach you directly.
To understand the full context of this dispute, please consider the following questions.
What's Rabbi Greenman's salary? - Is it the amount reported on Aish NY's 990's earlier this year? What's the real salary of any of the other people reported on Aish NY's 990's?
What's the relationship between Aish NY and any of the other affiliates, such as Aish UK and Project Inspire - Why are they on the Aish NY accounting system?
Why does 40% of donations made by Mr. Kuflik to Project Inspire end up by Rabbi Greenman?
Does Aish NY’s communications with donors, (such as Andrew Shechtel and Mark Charendorff, Paul Singer and others), show the real financial and operational situation or is there a considerable 'dress up' before sending results to donors?
I feel that Aish HaTorah is a wonderful organization that has done a lot of good for many people. Years ago, when I spoke to the late Rosh Yeshiva, zt"l, and expressed my concerns about how the organization was run, he said to me that he understood that sometimes things were a little sloppy, but if the end result was good, it was ok to overlook it. I feel tremendous responsibility in having helped perpetuate this 'sloppy' system and would like to come clean and rectify what was done wrong. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.
Thank you.
Jacob Fetman
646 261 0200
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