Conflicting Views of Rabbi Given as Fraud Trial Opens

Attorneys presented clashing views Tuesday of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi during the first day of his trial on charges of money laundering and bank fraud in Los Angeles federal court.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Leslie A. Swain told jurors that Rabbi Abraham Low was a sophisticated businessman who had participated in three illegal schemes “unified by one corrupt purpose--to turn dirty money into clean funds that are as good as gold.”

Swain said the prosecution would present video and audiotapes of meetings between Low and an undercover FBI agent, posing as a drug dealer, who wanted the rabbi to launder money for him. She said the tapes will demonstrate the Rabbi’s financial acumen and his desire to engage in profitable, illegal dealings.

The prosecutor also said Low told the undercover agent that he was an “expert in avoiding detection.” She presented a chart listing some of Low’s alleged techniques, including the use of codes and public phones and making cash deliveries in airport parking lots.

But defense lawyer Stephen D. Miller contended that Low is an honest man who thought he was getting involved in legal ventures.

“The evidence will show clearly and unequivocally that Rabbi Low did not believe” that the undercover agent was a drug dealer, “or that the money he asked Low to invest was related to drugs.” He told the jury that some of Low’s actions might seem unusual at first but would become understandable after evidence is heard.

Miller attempted to undercut the prosecution’s case on several occa sions, particularly the potentially damaging tapes. “In fact, we are glad we have these tapes, because otherwise we would be left only with the prosecution’s interpretation of what happened during the meetings between Rabbi Low and the FBI undercover agent,” he said.

Low, a financial consultant, and a Lomita woman were indicted on 20 criminal charges in January. According to the indictment, Low told undercover agent Johnny L. Smith that for a 30% cut, he could launder as much as $5 million a week through an overnight network of couriers who would ferry drug-tainted cash.

They also were accused of defrauding Home Savings & Loan when Low’s wife deposited a stolen and forged Bank of America cashier’s check for $496,000 and then withdrew a similar amount in four legitimate cashier’s checks. The third illegal scheme, Swain said, involved six counterfeit checks totaling $3 million.

If convicted, Low, 42, and his co-defendant, Sharlesetta Brown, 39, could face decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines. The original third defendant, financial consultant Alan Weston, has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution.

In his opening statement, Miller urged jurors to keep in mind that Low had been rabbi at Mogen Abraham--an Orthodox Jewish synagogue on La Brea Avenue--for 16 years. While leading the congregation, which “includes many survivors of Nazi concentration camps,” Low had arranged many loans for members, Miller said.

Miller said the agent never used the word launder when referring to the money. He acknowledged that the undercover agent told the rabbi in one meeting that they were dealing with “drug money.”

But Miller said Low thought that the man was trying to “act tough” because Weston had told him that was how “Ronnie,” the name the agent used in his meetings with the rabbi, would behave. Swain stressed, however, that in the meetings, “Low said over and over again, ‘I know what we’re talking about. You don’t have to tell me twice.’ ”

Miller also tried to undermine the prosecution’s credibility by saying that the government had relied on a convicted felon, Christopher Golasz, as its paid informant. The attorney argued that Golasz was prejudiced against the rabbi and his co-defendant Brown, who is black, because he is “an anti-Semite and a racist.”

Swain objected, saying that the issue of the informant had been dealt with in June when U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi rejected Miller’s motion to dismiss the charges against his client on the grounds of “outrageous government misconduct.”