17 Charged With Defrauding Nonprofit Fund for Holocaust Victims

Federal fraud charges were filed Tuesday against 17 people accused of conspiring to steal tens of millions of dollars from the nonprofit organization that administers payments to victims of the Holocaust, The New York Times reports.

Six of the suspects are current or former employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, better known as the claims conference, which was set up nearly 60 years ago to channel aid from the German government to people harmed under the Nazi regime.

Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District, said members of the ring collected more than $42-million by processing false applications to the two funds run by the claims conference. The parent organization went to the FBI late last year after discovering the alleged fraud.

Officials of the claims conference say the fraudulent claims represented about 1 percent of the money that the organization has distributed.