Two link rabbi to jails scheme
http://www.nydailynews.com/12-23-2003/news/story/148551p-131015c.html

By ROBERT GEARTY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Hot seat: Rabbi Milton Balkany has been implicated in a federal jails
bribery
scheme.

A prominent Brooklyn rabbi has been implicated in a bribery scandal for
allegedly helping to get inmates moved to country club prison camps
from
medium-security federal prisons, the Daily News has learned.

Two people who pleaded guilty in the bribery scam have told authorities
that
a rabbi was heavily involved; one said the rabbi "takes the money and
he pays
it to those who need to be paid."

Law enforcement sources said that rabbi is Milton Balkany, 57, director
of
the Bais Yaakov girls school in Borough Park.

Balkany, known as the Brooklyn Bundler for his ability to raise
campaign
funds for politicians - mostly Republicans - already is facing charges
for
allegedly misusing $700,000 in federal funds earmarked for disabled
kids at his
school.

The rabbi has proclaimed his innocence on those charges, adding
yesterday
that he also is innocent of bribery allegations.

"Not 10 cents, not even a box of toothpicks," has been given to any
prison
official, Balkany said. "It has never happened without exception, and I
say that
in the strongest truth."

Alexander Zakharov, 44, a former Brooklyn livery cab driver currently
of
Seminole, Fla., and Sam Kaplun, 61, of Hallandale, Fla., formerly of
Staten
Island, were arrested in 2001 and immediately began cooperating.

When he pleaded guilty two months ago, Zakharov said: "The money was to
be
given to [the] rabbi. They told me that the money was then supposed to
be given
to federal government officials."

Kaplun pleaded guilty Nov. 24.

A spokesman for Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley said the
investigation was continuing. No prison officials have been charged.

The FBI first heard about the bribery allegations in March 2001 after
Kaplun's son Vadim, imprisoned for manipulating penny stocks, met a
Russian mobster
doing time for extortion at Otisville federal prison in upstate New
York.

The Russian mobster told FBI agents that Vadim Kaplun claimed he had a
contact in the Bureau of Prisons who could arrange transfers to prison
camps.

Vadim Kaplun gave the mobster Zakharov's cell phone number. During the
spring
and summer of 2001, a Russian-speaking undercover cop then talked with
Zakharov about a transfer for the Russian mobster.

In court papers, Zakharov was quoted as saying that he reported to "a
rabbi
who had done this kind of thing for other inmates."

At a meeting at a Brooklyn gas station, the undercover paid Zakharov
$5,000
in partial payment for the transfer.

At another meeting, Zakharov told the undercover he could pay part of
the
$10,000 balance with a certified check made payable to an organization
connected
to the rabbi.

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