$42 Million in Reparations for Holocaust Victims Stolen

Ruth McCambridge

November 10, 2010

November 9, 2010; Source: msnbc.com | U.S. prosecutors are charging 17 people with scamming the New York nonprofit, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, into making about 5,500 payouts worth a total of $42 million.

The money, which was placed in trust by the German government, is meant to provide aid to Holocaust survivors. The FBI said the accused pretended to be victims of the Nazi persecution so they could collect money from the reparations fund.

Six employees of the fund are among the 17 people charged. Other employees apparently became suspicious and surfaced the scam last December.

Much as I try, I really do not the capacity to adequately comment on this one. —Ruth McCambridge

About the author

Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

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