A former administrator at the New York nonprofit that distributes German reparations to Holocaust survivors was sentenced to eight years behind bars on Monday for running a $57 million fraud that used Russian immigrants to pose as victims of the Nazis.
Semen Domnitser, 55, of Brooklyn, was also sentenced by Manhattan federal Judge Thomas Griesa to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $59,230 and pay $57.3 million in restitution.
A Manhattan jury in May convicted Domnitser and two accomplices of conspiracy and mail fraud for swindling the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Domnitser and accomplices Oksana Romalis and Luba Kramrish were the only three defendants to maintain their innocence in what US Attorney Preet Bharara called “unthinkable crimes.” The others 28 all copped pleas.
Domnitser served as the Conference’s director of the relevant programs from 1999 to 2010.