Sentencing will be April 18 for the former rabbi director of Chabad at the University of California, San Diego, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud involving another rabbi who has been sentenced to prison in a similar scheme.
Yehuda Hadjadj, 47, of La Jolla, remains free on his own recognizance after pleading guilty in late January to conspiracy to defraud Qualcomm’s corporate matching program with three other people who worked for Qualcomm, which is a Fortune 500 telecommunications company in San Diego.
Hadjadj faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison when he will appear on April 18 before U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Bashant.
Hadjadj told donors who wanted to receive a tax write-off for contributing to Chabad to make donations to Friendship Circle, an organization run at the time by Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, 58.
The payments had to be made to Friendship Circle because Qualcomm excluded sectarian or denominational religious groups from its eligible donation recipients.
Hadjadj returned most of the donations to the people in cash. Donors then requested that Qualcomm match the sham donation, which the company did. Goldstein funneled some of the funds back to Hadjadj and kept some for himself, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Hadjadj is the 10th person and the second person from La Jolla to plead guilty to crimes in this investigation. Bruce Baker, 75, a retired dentist from La Jolla, will be released from a residential re-entry program on Aug. 20.
Goldstein, whose index finger was shot off by a gunman at his Poway temple in 2019, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison.
Hadjadj was named director of the Chabad House at UC San Diego in 2005 and the organization provided a variety of social, educational, and cultural programming for Jewish students. Chabad provided weekly Shabbat services on Friday evenings and organized events for major Jewish holidays.
“Rabbi Hadjadj conspired with Rabbi Goldstein to cheat Qualcomm, and even recruited others who trusted him to commit fraud,” said Ryan L. Korner, IRS Criminal Investigation special agent in charge.
“Rabbi Hadjadj violated his position of trust within our community and took advantage of a corporate program meant to encourage employee charitable donations,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.
“Fraud has no place in fundraising, and those who use lies and dishonesty to obtain money, whether for themselves or for an organization, will be held to account for their crimes,” said Grossman.
“The defendant abused his status and connections to help facilitate a years-long fraud scheme,” said Suzanne Turner, who is the FBI special agent in charge.
According to Hadjadj’s plea agreement, a donor wrote a check for $4,900 to Friendship Circle in 2017 and Hadjadj visited the donor’s home and returned $4,400 in cash.
Hadjadj visited this donor 11 times to give him cash in exchange for sham matched donations to Friendship Circle, according to the plea agreement. That donor requested Qualcomm match their donations.
Hadjadj fraudulently obtained approximately $40,000 for Chabad at UC San Diego in the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Court records show an engineer for Qualcomm has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s office and a conspiracy charge may be dismissed on Dec. 29 if the engineer has no other cases. The engineer has agreed to pay Qualcomm $27,330 in restitution, according to records.
