cepekkolodziej
10.12.06, 23:02
Ten artykuł dostarcza argumentów, dlaczego żądania o restytucję majątków w Polsce powinno sie rozpatrywac jedynie indywidualnie.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3338282,00.html
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<<So who is the President of the Claims Conference, Israel Singer, and why do so many people object to the manner in which he operates?
Singer, 62, has been engaged for many years in public activities and served until 2001 as Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress, but stepped down from his role after allegations of his involvement in financial irregularities, even though there were no criminal findings. Even though he was forced to step down, Singer did not retire to his home but was appointed chairman of the WJC after it was made clear that he would not deal with financial affairs. He also serves as head of another organization, WJRO, whose main goal is to identify money of Holocaust victims in dormant bank accounts.
For years, Singer was one of the central personalities leading the campaign for restitution of Jewish property, including money found in dormant bank accounts in Switzerland. But, in January of this year, a grave report was released by the New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer (who was elected this month as the next Governor of New York).
The report reveals apparent financial irregularities amounting to millions of dollars, administrative deficiencies and circular transfers of 1.2 million dollars form the accounts of the WJC in New York to a bank account in Geneva. From there, the money found its way to a private bank account in England in the name of Advocate Zvi Barak, in his capacity as a trustee, and from there, it arrived in an account in the name of a private company called Solar, in which Advocate Barak had a shareholding. Upon opening of the investigation, the money was returned. Barak, incidentally, is the business partner of Opher Hirschson, the son of the Finance Minister.
The investigation began after allegations were made by the Legal Adviser of the WJC in Geneva, Advocate Daniel Lack. Singer claimed that the money was given in 2001 by the Jewish Agency, which finances part of the budget of the WJC, for his pension and relied on a letter given to him by the former chairman of the Jewish Agency, Avraham Burg.
But, in the investigation, it became apparent that the man who replaced Burg as chairman of the Jewish Agency and serves today as Israel's ambassador to Washington, Salai Meridor, contradicted his predecessor and said that the money was not intended for pensions.
Spitzer revealed the use of money by Singer for personal purposes. In his report, he describes, for example, how Singer managed to accumulate more than 450,000 points on his credit cards. Singer held several credit cards, including the exclusive black card of American Express, "Centurion", which is restricted to only the rich and famous. This magnificent card gives its holder unlimited credit and the cost of holding such a card is thousands of dollars a year. In total, according to Spitzer's assessment, Singer withdrew in cash approximately USD 671,000 to disburse on overseas trips (see WJC response below).
For example, in 2003, he submitted to the WJC, expense accounts amounting to USD 431,129 and in 2004, in the amount of USD 261,294. A breakdown of Singer's movements show that he flew to almost the entire world, sometimes together with his wife. For example, for two tickets to Germany, he paid (at the expense of the WJC, of course) USD 24,000. On the same day in September 2003, he paid an additional USD 1,000 for another flight. Six days later, his flight to Europe cost USD 12,000 and a week later, he paid EL AL USD 8,500. This was all paid by the WJC.
The total of all Singer's flights in 2003 was approximately USD 232,000 and the cost of his hotel accommodation amounted to approximately USD 173,000. In 2004, he really cut back and the cost of his flights and accommodation came to approximately USD 200,000.
Singer lives in New York, but this did not inhibit him from staying at deluxe hotels in the Big Apple, on which he spent in 2003 approximately USD 60,000 of WJC funds. In that year, he also stayed in deluxe hotels in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, Budapest, London – as well as in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In addition, he withdrew more than USD 134,000 in cash from the WJC account in New York and claimed before the Attorney General that he used the money for travel purposes.>>