Police in South Australia have recommended that the wife of a U.S.-born rabbi facing fraud charges also be charged.
Chana Engel and her husband, Yossi, face multiple charges of fraud relating to a phantom Hebrew school in Adelaide that they allegedly registered and for which they received government funding, according to
a report in the Australian Jewish News.
The Engels allegedly signed fake report cards to secure approximately $50,000 in funding from the South Australian Ethnic Schools Board.
Police earlier this month recommended that Rabbi Engel face 17 counts of fraud. A court date has yet to be set for the Chabad-Lubavitch couple.
Engel, 41, was appointed to the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation in 1998. His employment was terminated in December 2006, sparking an acrimonious legal battle that wound up in the Supreme Court of South Australia. The court ruled in favor of the city’s only Orthodox synagogue.
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