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Police: Psychiatrist helped haredim get stipends
Doctor believed to have supplied medical opinions used by yeshiva students to swindle the state
A senior psychiatrist with the Health Ministry is suspected of authorizing false claims made by yeshiva students, which allowed them to cheat the National Insurance Institute out of millions, Ynet has learned.
The psychiatrist has been arrested on suspicion that he gave his clients fraudulent medical opinions citing mental illness, which afforded them monthly stipends from the state. On Monday the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court remanded his arrest by four days.
Last week police arrested an ultra-Orthodox man believed to have referred clients to the psychiatrist. He is suspected of filing dozens of fraudulent claims regarding handicaps and mental illness on behalf of these clients, many of whom are haredim.
Police trailed a number of yeshiva students after learning that they were receiving the monthly stipend allotted to the mentally ill. Detectives say the psychiatrist knew the dishonest medical opinions were being used to reap benefits from the state.
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