July 30, 2014
By Neal Tepel
New York, NY – William Rapfogel, former executive director and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has been sentenced to 3 1/3 to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution to Met Council. The Attorney General’s investigation revealed that Rapfogel and his co-conspirators stole approximately $9 million from the taxpayer-funded nonprofit organization in a 20-year grand larceny and kickback scheme. Rapfogel personally stole $3 million and used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle.
“This sentence sends the message that there has to be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or powerful, and that those who rip off the neediest New Yorkers will be prosecuted,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “New York has the greatest nonprofit sector in the country, and this case reminds us that we must vigilantly protect it.”
From 1993 to 2013, Rapfogel served as the head of Met Council, a New York State not-for-profit organization that provides the poor and elderly in the New York City area with social, economic, housing, food and emergency financial assistance. Met Council receives funding through New York State and New York City grants, legislative member items and contracts. Before Rapfogel, David Cohen was Met Council’s executive director, and after Rapfogel took over in 1993, Cohen served as a consultant to the nonprofit.
The conspiracy began in 1992, when Cohen devised a scheme with Joseph Ross of Century Coverage Corporation in which the company would submit inflated invoices for insurance coverage to the nonprofit. Met Council knowingly paid the inflated premiums, and then Ross gave cash kickbacks to Cohen and Herb Friedman, Met Council's chief financial officer.
