After being extradited from the United Kingdom in August 2009, Avrum David Friesel returned back to the United States to receive a sentence of 27 months in prison for his participation in the 90’s long running Pell Grant and Section 8 Housing program fraud scheme led by Chaim Berger.
Before charging him for co-conspiring in Berger’s scheme in 1997, Friesel fled the country and hid in Israel with Berger. After Berger’s arrest in Israel, Friesel then fled to the United Kingdom in 1999 where he hid until he was arrested in 2008.
Throughout the 1980’s, Friesel and several co-defendants defrauded millions of dollars in federal and New York State grants and loans. Friesel and his co-defendants allegedly enrolled thousands of ineligible “independent study” students from New Square residents to receive millions of dollars in Pell Grants and financial aid. Friesel and his co-defendants purportedly lied on their financial aid applications about their ineligibility.
A part of Friesel’s sentencing was also a resultant of Friesel’s participation in New York City’s Section 8 rental subsidy program fraud, and other federal and state programs.
