50-year-old Menachem Youlus carried out the fraud from at least 2004 through last year, pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars through the “Save a Torah” charity he co-founded in 2004 as a nonprofit organisation. It is said he passed off Torahs he bought from US dealers to synagogues and congregations nationwide, sometimes at inflated rates.
Authorities said he duped benefactors by fabricating dramatic stories about sometimes dangerous trips, including to concentration camp sites in Poland and Germany.