Rabbis convicted in kidnap and torture plot

Rabbi Sentenced for Role in Divorce-Coercion Ring
By The Associated Press
Dec. 14, 2015
TRENTON — An Orthodox rabbi was sentenced on Monday to more than three years in prison for his role in a ring of Jewish men who used brutal methods and tools, including handcuffs and electric cattle prods, to torture unwilling husbands into granting their wives religious divorces.
The rabbi, Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey, N.Y., had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion. Ten men in all were convicted
The plot began to come apart after Rabbi Wolmark was recorded by an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who posed as a woman seeking a religious divorce, known as a “get.” Rabbi Wolmark put the woman and another agent posing as her brother in touch with a fellow Orthodox rabbi, Mendel Epstein, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and is to be sentenced on Tuesday. Rabbi Epstein was acquitted of attempted kidnapping.
Jewish law mandates that the get be presented by a husband to a wife to make a divorce official.
The female undercover agent testified that Rabbi Wolmark had said she needed “special rabbis” to get the job done. She said he told her that Rabbi Epstein was a “hired hand” who could be “very helpful” to them.
The two agents told Rabbi Wolmark that the woman’s husband in Argentina would not divorce her, even after they were “shaken down” for more than $20,000. Rabbi Wolmark warned the agents it could be a costly process and recommended Rabbi Epstein, according to the recording.
“You need to get him to New York to harass him or nail him, plain and simple,” Rabbi Wolmark is heard telling the agents, in reference to the husband.
After meeting with Rabbi Epstein, Rabbi Wolmark set up a rabbinical court that determined the husband could be coerced. Eight men then traveled from New York to a warehouse in Edison, N.J., intending to confront the man.
Instead, they were arrested.