New Square fraud fugitive captured in London

NEW YORK – A resident of the Rockland County Village of New Square, who was on the lamb for 11 years, was arrested in London on Tuesday, federal authorities announced.

Avrum David Friesel was charged in a 64 count indictment filed in 1997 for participating in a number of schemes to defraud the U.S. government of tens of millions of dollars.

A warrant was issued for Friesel in 1997 after he failed to appear in federal court. He was arrested after the US government formally requested that he be taken into custody by British authorities.

Friesel and six others were charged with having defrauded several federal and state grant, loan and subsidy programs, for their benefit and that of other residents of the Village of New Square.

Among other things, the indictment charges Friesel and the others created entities through which federal and state funds could be obtained; submitted fraudulent documentation in order to establish the eligibility of New Square residents and others to participate in the programs; use the funds from the programs for impermissible purposes; and concealed their fraud by using false names and nominee bank accounts.
They allegedly defrauded the Pell Grant program funded through the U.S. Department of Education, a Small Business Administration program to provide venture capital to small, minority-owned businesses, the Section 8 rental subsidy program funded through Housing and Urban Development, and the Social Security administration.

Four of the individuals who were charged with Friesel were convicted in 1999 following an 11 week trial in White Plains federal court. Another defendant, Chaim Berger, fled before trial and was arrested in Israel in 1999 and was later extradited to the U.S. He pled guilty upon his return.