Yitzchak Rosenberg and a Beach in Miami – A Tale of Two Cities, the Satmar, former Mob connections, Diamonds and Drowning – Part I
May 19, 2016
The entire report [tale] of the five Satmar men on a nude [or scantily clad] beach exercising together is difficult if not impossible to believe, particularly since one of the men had a long history of financial shenanigans and mob connections going back to the early 1990’s and the other was a diamond dealer, who only months earlier had been beaten and robbed of $35,000 worth of diamonds. The former (described as a “philanthropist”) should likely have been in jail rather than out on beaches and the the latter either had terrible luck, lousy karma or was lucky he lasted this long. That remains to be determined.
The newspapers are reporting that there were 5 men altogether who were sunbathing [or canoodling] on a beach [perhaps a nude beach] in Miami. Of those, three of the men were “pulled to sea by rip currents off of Miami Beach’s Haulover Beach on Tuesday morning, just north of the nude section [or at the nude section and it is being kept quiet].
The reports are stating that two of the men died, Yitzchak (a/k/a Isaac a/k/a Yitzchok) Rosenberg (zl) and Chaim Parnes (zl), both of whom it would appear were taken from the water naked [or barely clad]. One man, Aaron Wercberger is still recovering in a hospital in Miami. The details regarding the other two men, who were not in the water at the time are a bit cloudy [or are even less shady].
It is reported that the group were in South Florida with their wives for vaction and the “men went to the beach to exercise and chose the spot because it was secluded and they could swim and comply with Orthodox Judaism’s “modesty laws.”” Whether or not their dress complied with those laws is a big question mark.
So where does that leave us?
We know for certain [at least we think so] that the five men were Satmar Hasidim, some from Borough Park and some from Kiryas Joel. The men may or may not have been clothed, may or may not have been sunbathing [fraternizing] on a nude beach supposedly just north of where they were taken out of the water; and they may or may not have been on vacation with their families. We also know that they may or may not have drowned [because of rip currents]. You see where this is going…
Yizchak Rosenberg, z.l.
Rosenberg’s demise in Miami does not begin and end with the possibility that he drowned unclothed, uncharacteristic of Hasidic Jews, north of a clothing optional beach (also uncharacteristic of Hasidic Jews). He and Miami go way back…
“Yitzchak Rosenberg, 67, was the president of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, the central religious organization in Brooklyn of the followers of the Kiryas Joel, New York-based Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, and a founder of the sect’s yeshiva system in Brooklyn. Rosenberg was also a major Brooklyn real estate developer and the owner of a building supply wholesaler.”
“Rosenberg founded Certified Lumber, his building supply business, with his brother, Abraham Rosenberg. According to the real estate website The Real Deal, Rosenberg and his brother owned more than 40 Brooklyn buildings. His development projects included a proposed condo on the East River called Rose Plaza, which was granted a controversial zoning swap in 2011. In 2015, the Real Deal reported that the site was on the market for $250 million.”
On April 30, 1998 it was reported that:
“A New York investor, two lawyers and six business associates were charged Wednesday by a federal grand jury with $300 million in fraudulent deals that collapsed an Orlando-based insurance company.
A 93-count indictment accused Shalom Weiss [who is currently in jail serving an 845 year term – LM], former owner of the defunct Studio 54 nightclub in Manhattan, and others with swindling National Heritage Life Insurance Co. and parent LifeCo Investment Group before regulators shut down the insurer in 1994.
The charges follow recent guilty pleas by former company general counsel Michael Blutrich, investorLyle Pfeffer and former Chief Operating Officer Patrick Smythe to charges of racketeering, fraud and money-laundering. All are cooperating with prosecutors.
“This is the most recent in a series of criminal charges filed against those responsible for looting NHLIC and bringing about its collapse,” said U.S. Attorney Charles Wilson of Tampa.
Weiss, 44, of Monsey, N.Y., was charged in 76 counts with racketeering, conspiracy and assorted fraud, theft and money-laundering charges. He also was charged with making false statements to federal investigators and obstructing justice by producing false documents to the grand jury.
Also named in racketeering charges were Weiss’ lawyer, Jan Schneiderman, 40, of Flushing, N.Y.; attorney Richard Herman, 41, of White Plains, N.Y.; Keith Pound, 45, of Flossmoor, Ill.; Yaakov Stark, 34, of Miami Beach; Isack Rosenberg, 49, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Nadine Allen, 58, and her husband, Robert Gorski, 62, both of Crystal Lake, Ill.
Richard Langer, 51, of Olive Bridge, N.Y., and several New York and Illinois companies alleged to be controlled by Weiss and other suspects were charged in mail fraud, wire fraud, theft and money-laundering counts.
All will be summoned to appear before a U.S. magistrate in Orlando. Each faces prison terms of up to 34 years.
Weiss and Herman were charged last July with participating in a $47 million fraud with Blutrich, Pfeffer and Smythe. But for strategic reasons, prosecutors dropped charges against the two in December after the others began cooperating.
The New York Post has reported that Blutrich and Pfeffer, New York men affiliated with Scores topless club in Manhattan, are key witnesses involving cash payoffs to mob boss John Gotti Jr. and are entering the federal witness protection program.”
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-04-30/business/9804290889_1_pfeffer-weiss-charged
On October 30, 1999 it was reported that Yitzchak Rosenberg was one of six people (another being his brother Abraham) charged “with stealing millions of dollars from National Heritage Life Insurance Co., in the largest insurance fraud in the nation’s history.”
On February 9, 2000, it was reported that Yitzchak Rosenberg was then “one of a dozen people who were convicted of stealing $400 million from the insurer through a series of complicated schemes.” “Originally facing 20 years in prison, he was sentenced Monday to two years’ probation and a $10,000 fine.”
“[Abraham] Rosenberg [Yitzchak’s brother] admitted he submitted two false documents, one sworn and one not sworn, to a federal bankruptcy court in New York in 1992, claiming National Heritage was a $4.3 million creditor in his companies, Certified Lumber and Boro Park Inc.”
“By making those false statements, National Heritage became the largest single unsecured creditor in the case, which placed it in a position to control Rosenberg’s plan of repayment.”
“The New York businessman who represented the insurer in Rosenberg’s bankruptcy actually was an associate of Rosenberg’s who had obtained mortgage loans for him.”
“That associate, who later pleaded guilty to multiple crimes, also loaned Rosenberg more than $3 million of stolen National Heritage money.”
“Rosenberg appeared in court with his wife. She is a cousin of Sholam Weiss, 45, the lead defendant in the National Heritage case. Weiss and three others were convicted of crimes following a nine month trial [the previous] year.
Weiss, who [faced] a sentence of life in prison on Feb. 15, disappeared in October and is the subject of an FBI manhunt.”
On March 9, 2000, The New York Times, reporting about the 845 year sentence imposed upon Weiss and his fleeing to parts unknown, described in basic terms National Life Insurance scheme as follows:
The scheme itself — in which a series of numbingly complex mortgage and stock frauds were used to loot the National Heritage Life Insurance Company — attracted little attention outside Florida, where the majority of the insurer’s mostly elderly policyholders live. But the federal authorities said it ranked as the largest insurance company failure caused by criminal acts in United States history.
In addition to Mr. Weiss, 15 business executives and lawyers from Arizona, Texas, Illinois and New York have either pleaded guilty or been convicted in the fraud case in the last four years, and several are already serving long prison terms.
The federal authorities say the fraud began in the early 1990’s, when the group of businessmen and lawyers effectively hijacked the insurer. Using a variation on a simple check-kiting scheme, they bought the company with a check and then, once they had taken over, simply lent themselves the money to cover the purchase price.
In December of 2000, a decision came down in a case entitled Sklaroff v. Rosenberg, a civil claim against Abraham Rosenberg, Isaac (Yitzchak) Rosenberg and Rose Castle, a case borne out of the National Heritage Life Insurance criminal case. The civil case was decided in favor of Sklaroff on a summary judgment, awarding the Plaintiff with $,9,982,487 plus attorney’s fees, interest, late charges and penalties, setting aside the satisfaction of a mortgage on a fraudulent conveyance claim and “Imposing a constructive trust over the Franklin Realty property for the benefit of plaintiff.”
In September of 2001, The Daily News wrote an article connecting Yitzchak Rosenberg, the yeshiva over which he presided [until the time of his death], Yeshiva Yetev Lev D’Jerusalem of Williamsburg and the Satmar community to a money laundering business run out of Gotti owned Scores Night Club.
YESHIVA AND THE MOB Feds: Gotti washed cash through B’klyn school
A mob-controlled strip club used a yeshiva run by the city’s biggest Hasidic sect to launder cash for crime boss John A. (Junior) Gotti, federal prosecutors have charged. The scheme orchestrated by the owners of Scores, the upscale strip club, apparently was carried out without the knowledge of the Satmars, the sect that operates Yeshiva Yetev Lev D’Jerusalem of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At least one yeshiva board member, Isack Rosenberg, served as a conduit for the cash, but says he had no idea it was going to Gotti. Details of the money laundering emerged last month in the final days of the Gold Club trial in Atlanta, where prosecutors alleged Gotti received $100,000 to settle a dispute between gangsters fighting for control of Scores. The East Side club was secretly controlled by the Gambinos in the mid-1990s. According to testimony in the Gold Club case, in June 1995 Rosenberg was asked by a lawyer connected to Scores to obtain a large sum of cash. With Rosenberg’s okay, the lawyer then wrote two checks to the yeshiva from an entity called the First Avenue Nite Club Corp., which owned the now-defunct Chippendales male strip club on the East Side. The two checks totaling $100,000 were deposited in the yeshiva account, and Rosenberg says he told yeshiva board members the money was a “loan.
” Rosenberg says he then wrote checks totaling $100,000 to his lumber company, which then provided $95,000 in cash for the transaction. He kept a $5,000 fee for himself. Rosenberg says he delivered the cash to Scores co-owner Lyle Pfeffer at Scores’ corporate office in midtown. Pfeffer – who pleaded guilty to fraud charges and cooperated with the government – said he gave the cash to Craig DePalma, a mob soldier. DePalma told the Gold Club grand jury he later handed it to Gotti at a Long Island wedding. Gotti pleaded guilty to numerous racketeering charges in 1999 and is serving a six-year sentence. His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, noted that Gotti did not admit to participation in the Scores shakedown. Rosenberg’s lawyer, Samuel Burstyn, said his client deeply regrets involving the yeshiva in the transaction. “Unequivocally, I can tell you that Mr. Rosenberg never had any inkling that this transaction would lead into the Gotti crime syndicate,” Burstyn said. “He was trying to help out a friend, and he was deceived about the true purpose of the loan.
Additional sources:
2 NEW YORK MEN DROWN WHILE SWIMMING IN OCEAN OFF MIAMI, FLORIDA
http://abc7ny.com/news/2-new-york-men-drown-while-swimming-in-ocean-off-miami/1342618/
Two rabbis drown in powerful rip current at Haulover Beach
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article78134277.html
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article78134277.html#storylink=cpy
Jewish Community Mourns Loss Of Prominent Rabbis Who Drowned At Haulover Park
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/05/17/investigation-underway-after-two-drown-at-haulover-beach/
SKLAROFF v. ROSENBERG
125 F.Supp.2d 67 (2000)
Jeffrey B. SKLAROFF, as Receiver, Plaintiff, v. Abraham ROSENBERG, Isaac Rosenberg, Rose Castle Corp. and Franklin Realty Corp., Defendants.
United States District Court, S.D. New York.
LM Note from Sklaroff v. Rosenberg:
For the relationship of NuLenda to Pfeffer, Blutrich, LPDA and the Rosenbergs, see the April 1998 Plea Agreements of Pfeffer and Blutrich. The Receiver suggests that the July 26 Satisfaction of Mortgage document was forged. There is a high probability that this belief is correct. Since, however, that matter cannot be properly be resolved on this motion for summary judgment, its authenticity is assumed for purposes of resolving this motion.
845 Years in Prison, If the Authorities Can Catch Him; F.B.I. Says Fugitive Has a Flair For Fraud and Hiding Stolen Cash
LOSTMESSIAH 
There are no assumptions. The area of the beach where the men were located was not for bathing, though apparently atmospheric conditions on that day were not as bad as had been reported and unless they could not swim, it is highly unlikely that they were carried off by a riptide. And they did not belong there. The dots and assumptions are really not so hard to form. And, it is really interesting that it has taken nearly two years for you to comment on this article. Timing really is everything.
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you are a piece of drek .they will cook you in tzoiah rusches.di menivel gemiener ying shame on you
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Ridiculous assumptions about nude bathing — the chassidic and respectable men were going to the mikveh and using the world’s largest mikveh — the ocean. Chassidic custom is for men to immerse in mikveh after sex. Being they were on vacation with their wives for rest and relaxation, high chance they needed to dip.
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to LM:
The last link posted above in the additional sources section, (not the comments)
is totally outdated in that it links to an old NYTimes article from before Sholam Weiss was found and extradited to the US to serve his (now) 835 year sentence which was more recently upheld by an appeals court.
The article you linked to does not even mention either of the two people who tragically are the subject of this blog post although you have previously hinted that at least one was connected to Sholam Weiss so it seems that that link was posted in error.
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We will check that. Thanks.
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there is a special place in hell for all of you sick twisted dreck. Open your own closets and sweep out the skeletons of your present and past.
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Word from a Satmar acquaintance: they buried him next to Rabbi Yosef Ashkenazi who was the gabbai of Reb Yoilish and was considered a learned and G-d fearing man. YA’s family is up in arms, and they are thinking of exhuming him and shipping to Israel… What a world we live in. Gelt Uber Alles!!
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Word also is that it was a mafia hit.
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Word??? What word???
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Now that would be priceless…
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@flatbusher, we heard the same thing. The papers are reporting that he was buried next to Teitelbaum and that is why KJ is up in arms. So, was it YA or Teitelbaum? We can’t seem to get a straight story.
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As we say on the high holy days. !מי במים ומי באש. Who knows but this could very well be מיתה בידי שמים.
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Was this in retaliation from mr. starks family?
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Nor sure…
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We are trying to make a connection between this Stark and that one, can you help?
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At the time his name was mentioned within hours as the prime suspect by people in Brooklyn.
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no, it was the NSA, because when the teitelbaums killed Kennedy, darth vater secluded himself on planet x to figure out how the phenemons work, but then the Iranians beat him to the chase and got it first, so mossad who had an agent planted there dispatched their nuclear sub and nuked whatever was left from Atlantis the continent under the ocean, becuase an ancient manuscript said that it was there on Atlantis that the ashes of the red heifer were hidden, so this action got everyone angry, including the pope who was going to give a speech, but then putin wacked him first.
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Typical attempt to make legitimate inquires look crazy. Obviously some people are disturbed that these investigations are accelerating.
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Funny thing… any discussion regarding Shlomo Rechnitz and his appalling treatment of the elderly in his nursing homes leads to incoherent responses. You have to wonder whether those trying to stop the discussion about him and his 1 in 14 beds understand the magnitude of the abuse that goes on.
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The Teitlebaums and their followers are nothing but a bunch of boorish gypsies – animals that happen to walk on two legs with neither morals or good sense or any ethics whatsoever. They are the lowest form of Judaism and even make the Lubavitchers look better than them, which aint easy. I’d take one Rubashkin over all the Satmar scumbag liars and crooks that could fill Yankee stadium.
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What about the off duty cop? Was he the killer?
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No autopsy?
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He’s a religious Jew, likely not…
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Masterfully convenient!
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First the cop “kills himself” and now Rosenberg “drowns.” What’s next?
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Rosenberg was given Satmar’s highest honor by being buried next to the Rebbe,
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When you commit crimes for the Grand wazoo and his flock, it pays dividends.
Just ask Mr. Spitzer.
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Great piece awsome.
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Agreed.
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