Jewish Fraudster Gets 18 Months For
$10 Mil Heist

Judge Releases Him For Holocaust
Reasons

Jewish Convict Freed

A Holocaust survivor who experienced flashbacks to
his war ordeal after he was jailed for his part in a £6.9million
money laundering operation was freed as an 'act of mercy'.

Since being incarcerated five weeks ago, 76-year-old
Mendel Rand, originally from Poland, had relived daily the trauma
of being kept hidden from the Nazis in horrible conditions as a
boy, the Court of Appeal heard.

Jewish Holocaust Survivor Suffers

Mr
Justice Openshaw accepted that 'the wretched old man' had
suffered enough punishment for his involvement in the crime which
had brought shame to his family and disgraced him in the eyes of
his strict community of Hasidic Jews.

"The resultant shame
will no doubt bring a heavy burden for him to carry for the rest
of his life," said the judge. "We think, as an act of mercy, he
should be allowed to go free."

Rand's 18-month prison term
was replaced with a two-year suspended sentence.

Hidden From Nazis

Rand was convicted in November 2004 of a money laundering
conspiracy, which involved helping cigarette smugglers dispose of
the proceeds of their crime. Mr Justice Openshaw said that when
Rand's parents were arrested in Krakow during the Second World
War, their son was kept hidden from the Nazis by a sympathiser
'often in cellars in the cold and dark, often under-nourished and,
of course, in constant fear of capture'.

"This experience has cast a pall over his whole life," the
judge added. "Now he daily relives the experience."

article

Natalee
Holloway

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