Announcement Regarding the Article 2 Fund
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This post is for historical informational purposes only. Please do not refer to this post for information pertaining to current Claims Conference programs. Visit What We Do for current program guidelines and information. Thank you.
July 1, 2010
As part of its ongoing investigation of the fraud perpetrated on its individual compensation programs, the Claims Conference has discovered what it believes to be fraudulent applications to the Article 2 Fund, a pension paid to certain Holocaust survivors.
The Claims Conference has paid pensions to 106,761 people in 78 countries.Of these, it has identified to date 202 people who it believes have been receiving Article 2 payments based on fraudulent applications. All of these applications were processed by the New York office.
The Claims Conference has been working closely with Federal law enforcement authorities and has turned over all of the information available to it to the authorities with regard to this matter. The Federal law enforcement authorities have been vigorously investigating what is a sophisticated and complicated fraudulent scheme against the Claims Conference.
The Claims Conference has suspended all suspected illegal pensions. It has informed each affected person of their right to submit any documents to prove the accuracy of their application and their eligibility. An appeals procedure has been established to review these submitted documents.
The Claims Conference is in the process of reviewing hundreds of files to identify, which, if any, additional claims are fraudulent.Further, the Claims Conference is acting swiftly to seek to recover funds from individuals whose applications were approved under false pretense or who are receiving payments based on what the Claims Conference believes is false information provided in their applications. The Claims Conference is determined to help the government and authorities bring to justice those who have used illegal documentation to fraudulently extract funds.
Further, the Claims Conference has put in place additional comprehensive and strict guidelines to further safeguard its compensation programs and ensure that it will not be again the victim of such a scheme.
The Claims Conference remains steadfast in its mission to assist Jewish victims of Nazism, and will not allow a criminal scheme to deter it from this work.
July 1, 2010
