A Brooklyn rabbi lost his life savings -- and even his synagogue -- to a Yonkers man using a telecommunications company as a "front" for a Ponzi scheme, a new lawsuit claims.
Congregation Darkei Chaim of Borough Park and Rabbi Avrohom Horowitz filed the suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court last week claiming they were scammed out of $200,000 and left "penniless" by Raymond Bouraad of Yonkers after investing in domestic and overseas minutes through Bouraad's company, Talktime World.
Bouraad "stole" most of the cash the congregation invested last year and "used it to [support] his lavish lifestyle," the suit alleges.
"This is my worst nightmare," Horowitz told The Post. "I got some of my congregants to invest after I was sold a bill of goods. I lost my dignity and their respect as rabbi after the checks bounced."
But Bouraad claims Horowitz and members of the extravagant synagogue at 1847 60th St. are "lying" -- and actually made a $26,000 profit on their investments.
He told The Post that Horowitz "acted like a loan shark" during their dealings by trying to collect obscenely high interest as part of a failed power grab to "take over the business."
Horowitz lives atop the synagogue, which opened three years ago and has 120 members. He took out $1.6 million in mortgages to build it but said that tab has since been paid off through donations.
I know Raymond, and he does not live a lavish lifesytle. Avi Horowitz is just a greedy, man who is trying to destroy the lives of an innocent family
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