NY Rabbi Busted In Holocaust Scam

Rabbi Menachem Youlus has been selling copies of the Torah he claimed to have unearthed using a metal detector at Auschwitz. Yeah, that never happened.

Rabbi Youlus could receive up to 20 years in prison on each of the two counts when he is sentenced on June 21, but sentencing guidelines recommend terms of 51 to 63 months. Prosecutors said he sold fake Torahs over a period of six years, and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars through Save a Torah, a nonprofit organization he helped found in 2004. The scheme took several forms, according to a complaint filed by the United States attorney’s office. Prosecutors said Rabbi Youlus solicited more than $1 million from Save a Torah, asking that the money be paid to a bookstore he owned in Maryland, called the Jewish Bookstore, and explaining that the money was payment for restoring old and damaged scrolls.

It turns out that self-proclaimed "Jewish Indiana Jones" never even visited the places where he claimed to have found the scrolls.