Holocaust Cash Went To Shadowy Pal Of Ousted WJC Leader
Israeli finance minister, now being probed for corruption, urged death camp tour group to hire little-known N.Y. consultant; Singer friend Curtis Hoxter can’t explain what he did for $709,000.
May 4th, 2007 | The Jewish Week
by Larry Cohler-Esses and Ran Dagoni
An internationally known Holocaust education group disbursed — apparently illegally — more than $700,000 to an associate of an Israeli cabinet minister now under investigation for corruption, a joint investigation by The Jewish Week and the Israeli business daily Globes has learned.
In 2003, March of the Living, a New Jersey-based charity, began payments totaling $709,000 to Curtis Hoxter, who is also closely tied to former World Jewish Congress leader Israel Singer. The group began its payments to Hoxter the same year Singer was instructed to stop funneling unauthorized payments to him via the World Jewish Congress — payments that had by then totaled $657,600.
During this time, Singer was also involved in negotiations to join Hoxter’s Manhattan public relations firm as a partner.
David Machlis, president of March of the Living, told The Jewish Week that it was Avraham Hirchson, the group’s founder and now Israel’s minister of finance, who introduced Hoxter to the group and urged his hiring. Hirchson, a key partner of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, “suspended” himself last week as finance minister pending the outcome of a police investigation. He is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars in Israeli health care and union funds prior to taking his cabinet position. (….Full Article Here)
