Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Fugitive Arrested in London After 11 Years

MANHATTAN (CN) - After 11 years as a fugitive from charges he defrauded the United States of tens of millions of dollars, Avrum David Friesel has been arrested in London, federal prosecutors said Monday. Friesel and six others were charged with defrauding state and federal loan and subsidy programs in the Village of New Square, in Rockland County. Four of his co-defendants were convicted in 1999.

Friesel and his cohorts were charged with defrauding the Pell Grant program, the Small Business Administration, the Section 8 housing program, and the Social Security Administration. Friesel submitted phony documents "to establish the eligibility of New Square residents and others to participate in these programs; used the funds obtained from these programs for impermissible purposes; and concealed their fraud by using false names and nominee bank accounts," prosecutors said in a statement announcing his arrest.

The sixth man, Chaim Berger, was arrested in Israel in 1999, extradited, and pleaded guilty.

Friesel is lodged at government expense in London, where he will be given a bail hearing on May 7.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...