June 23, 2014
By Stephanie West
New York, NY – Herbert Friedman, former Met Council chief financial officer has been sentenced to a felony conviction and will serve 4 Months in Jail and pay $775,000 in restitution. Friedman, together with other co-conspirators, stole over $9 million from the taxpayer-funded nonprofit organization in a 20-year grand larceny and kickback scheme.
“The conspirators in this case abused their positions of trust to help steal millions of dollars from a taxpayer-funded charitable organization – one dedicated to serving some of New York City’s poorest and most vulnerable residents,” Attorney General Schneiderman said.
Met Council is a New York State not-for-profit organization that provides the poor and elderly in the metropolitan New York City area with social, economic, housing, food and emergency financial assistance as well as anti-family violence programs. Met Council receives funding through New York State and New York City grants, legislative member items and contracts.
Friedman, 80 years old, pleaded guilty on May 6, 2014 to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (a class D felony) and Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree (a class E felony). Friedman admitted that between the early 1990s and 2009, he received approximately $250,000 from the grand larceny and kickback scheme. Three other defendants, David Cohen, William Rapfogel and Joseph Ross, previously pleaded guilty in the case. The thefts began in 1992, when Cohen devised the scam with Joseph Ross, of Century Coverage Corporation. The company would submit inflated invoices for insurance coverage to Met Council. Met Council would pay the inflated premiums and Ross would then pay cash kickbacks to Cohen, Rapfogel and Friedman, Met Council's chief financial officer until his departure in 2009. Friedman, was responsible for overseeing all payments to outside vendors such as Century.
