Christopher Peak Photo
Rabbi Daniel and Sarah Greer leave federal courthouse during civil trial.
A federal judge has ruled that probable cause exists that Rabbi Daniel Greer’s wife fraudulently withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars out of a joint bank account to avoid paying money owed to a former yeshiva student who says Greer molested him for three years.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson wrote in a ruling issued last week that the victim’s lawyers have established probable cause that Sarah Greer fraudulently transferred money to herself.
In May 2017, a jury decided Daniel Greer and the Yeshiva of New Haven owe what’s now $21.7 million (including current interest) to Eliyahu Mirlis, the former student who said the rabbi repeatedly sexually abused him from his sophomore to senior years. Around the same time Sarah Greer wrote herself three checks for $238,000 to deposit in her own bank account.
Mirlis’s lawyers called that a “fraudulent conveyance.” They argued it fit into a larger pattern of dodging their collection attempts that have so far netted only about $74,000 in cash.
After hearing arguments from both sides at a mid-July hearing, Judge Richardson ordered a “pre-judgment remedy,” attaching a $238,000 lien on the Greers’ West Park Avenue home. He also ordered Sarah Greer to disclose her all her assets.
During a recent deposition, Greer said that she had always had checks deposited into a personal bank account, but she said she also shared two joint bank accounts with her husband at Start Community Bank and Liberty Bank.
Less than a week before the verdict, on May 12, Greer wrote herself a $5,000 check from their Start account and deposited it into her own account. A month after the verdict, on June 16, she wrote herself another $13,000 check from their Start account and deposited it into her own account.
Most significantly, on June 5, the day before the judgment was entered, Greer wrote herself a $220,000 check from their Liberty account and deposited it into a Rhode Island bank account that she had opened just that day.
Between August 2013 and July 2017, Rabbi Greer had deposited almost all of the money, through checks solely in his name, into the joint account, also listed in his name. Until Sarah Greer wrote the $220,000 check to herself, he had been the only one to make 10 withdrawals from the account.
Greer said that she could not recall if she knew about the verdict when she wrote the three checks. She admitted she had been sitting in court when the jurors said the rabbi owed $15 million in compensatory damages and $5 million punitive damages.
Judge Richardson wrote in his ruling that that sounded like it could have all the hallmarks of violating the Connecticut Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act. He said that an asset had been transferred after a claim had already been staked out, possibly with the intent to “hinder, delay or defraud” the creditor.
“Here, the defendant is the wife of the debtor and clearly an insider,” Richardson wrote. “There is evidence that after her deposition, the defendant nearly depleted a bank account that she had not used for a year.
“Further,” he went on, “the check transfers occurred around the time of the jury verdict and judgment. Ten days, after the judgment, the transfers were deposited into an out of state account solely bearing the defendant’s name. Not only did the check transfers occur at this time, but defendant removed herself as a signatory on an account that she had held jointly with her husband for years.”
Asked why she moved the money during the deposition, Greer said she had wanted “to take the money from our joint account that belongs to me and take it out.” Her lawyers had argued that motive — simply taking what was hers — made the transfer legal.
Judge Richardson said that simply having a name on a bank account doesn’t change the analysis of whether the money had been moved to avoid paying debts.
Richardson also cautioned that his ruling isn’t final. He said the lawyers had established probable cause, a more “modest” burden of proof that judges have described as a set of claims that a person of “ordinary caution, prudence and judgement, under the circumstances,” would simply entertain as an argument.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Greer is now facing criminal charges of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. His trial is scheduled to begin in state court on Sept. 16, after jurors are picked next week.
Beginning in the 1980s, Rabbi Greer oversaw the revival of the neighborhood around his yeshiva at the corner of Norton and Elm streets, renovating neglected historic homes. He advocated for keeping nuisance businesses out of the Whalley Avenue commercial corridor, exposed johns who patronized street prostitutes in the neighborhood, and then in 2007 for launching an armed neighborhood “defense” patrol and then calling in the Guardian Angels for assistance to combat crime. Since the verdict, residents say the properties have fallen into disrepair.
Over the years, Rabbi Greer also received national attention for his political stands. In the 1970s, heparticipated as a leader in the successful campaign to force the United States to pressure the Soviet Union into allowing Jewish “refuseniks” to emigrate here and start new, freer lives. Greer has also crusaded against gay rights in Connecticut, and he filed suit against Yale University over a requirement that students live in coed dorms.
Previous coverage of this case:
• Suit: Rabbi Molested, Raped Students
• Greer’s Housing Corporations Added To Sex Abuse Lawsuit
• 2nd Ex-Student Accuses Rabbi Of Sex Assault
• 2nd Rabbi Accuser Details Alleged Abuse
• Rabbi Sexual Abuse Jury Picked
• On Stand, Greer Invokes 5th On Sex Abuse
• Rabbi Seeks To Bar Blogger from Court
• Trial Mines How Victims Process Trauma
• Wife, Secretary Come To Rabbi Greer’s Defense
• Jury Awards $20M In Rabbi Sex Case
• State Investigates Greer Yeshiva’s Licensing
• Rabbi Greer Seeks New Trial
• Affidavit: Scar Gave Rabbi Greer Away
• Rabbi Greer Pleads Not Guilty
• $21M Verdict Upheld; Where’s The $?
• Sex Abuse Victim’s Video Tests Law
• Decline at Greer’s Edgewood “Village”?
• Rabbi’s Wife Sued For Stashing Cash
• Why Greer Remains Free, & Victim Unpaid
• Showdown Begins Over Greer Properties