Lawyer who stole from Holocaust survivors appeals to Supreme Court

In his appeal, Perry claimed that his conviction was not based on any concrete evidence. “This is the first time in legislative history that a man is convicted of wide-scale fraud and embezzlement without a shred of legal evidence,” he said.

Perry also included in his appeal a statement from jurisprudent Mordechai Kremintzer in which the latter maintained that Perry’s trial suffered from serious juridical flaws.

Last week, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Attorney Israel Perry, convicted of stealing hundreds of millions of Deutsche Marks from Holocaust Survivors using a fictitious organization that he had founded, to 12 years in prison. Perry was also ordered to pay an $6.1 million fine.

Most of Perry’s clients were Holocaust survivors, who Perry supposedly represented in reparation negotiations with the German government. Judge Zecharia Caspi noted the severity of Perry’s crimes, and defined his actions as "wide-scale theft and fraud".

Judge Caspi utilized the sentencing hearing to harshly criticize Perry’s actions, noting that “Attorney Perry acted in a slick, dishonest, despicable manner. He defrauded his clients, caused them great harm, and committed severe offenses for a prolonged period of time.”

Perry was convicted of aggravated fraud, embezzlement, obstruction of justice and violation of insurance laws four months ago  after a lengthy six-year trail.

He was convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands of Deutsche Marks from clients of the Association for Implementing the Social Security Covenant (AISSC) which he founded, which allegedly represented Holocaust Survivors in reparations negotiations with West Germany.

The district court had agreed to postpone execution of Perry’s sentence in order to allow the attorney to appeal its decision.