The top American professional of an international Holocaust restitution
commission was investigated for
allegedly misappropriating commission funds for personal use before resigning
last summer, according to
sources and an internal document written by the commission's chairman.
Neal Sher, former chief of staff in the Washington office of the International
Commission on Holocaust Era
Insurance Claims, was investigated by the commission after admitting "unauthorized
reimbursements of his
ICHEIC travel expenses," the internal commission document states. The document
was written by the chairman
of the Holocaust commission, former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger.
Following the investigation, which was subjected to a "review" by a
former FBI chief, Judge William Webster,
Sher resigned in June and paid "full and immediate restitution," the document
states. A source with direct
knowledge of the situation, as well as other sources close to the commission,
verified the existence and content
of the document.
Although these allegations were made, the Forward has not established that they are true.
Sher is widely admired for his groundbreaking work as the federal government's
chief Nazi hunter during
11 years as director of the Office of Special Investigations of the U.S.
Department of Justice. During that time
he oversaw the denaturalization and deportation of dozens of onetime Nazi
war criminals. He also led the
investigation into the Nazi past of Austrian president Kurt Waldheim and
was credited for Waldheim's placement
on the watch list of persons ineligible to enter the United States. After
leaving the OSI in 1994 he became the
executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a post
he held for two years.
But Sher's tenure as head of the Holocaust insurance commission was
stormy almost from the outset. Under his
watch, the commission was subjected to criticism from Holocaust survivors
and members of Congress for allegedly exorbitant administrative expenses,
including spending for travel, according to press reports at the time.
The
controversy was reported in the Forward as well as the Baltimore Sun and
the Los Angeles Times.
The commission document describing Sher's alleged "unauthorized reimbursements"
is addressed to Pennsylvania
insurance commissioner Diane Koken, who chairs the commission's five-member
finance committee. The document
is dated June 25, 2002, five days after the commission officially announced
Sher's resignation.
Sher first admitted his actions to Eagleburger, who regarded them as
"probable improprieties" and placed Sher
on "administrative leave" pending an investigation, the document states.
Eagleburger then asked the commission's
legal counsel, Tom Howard, to conduct a "fact-finding investigation" and
enlisted Webster to review the case,
according to the document.
Following Judge Webster's reply to Eagleburger, the document states, Eagleburger "accepted Mr. Sher's resignation" effective June 20, 2002 and "obtained full and immediate restitution."
Sources close to the commission told the Forward that Sher had been
alleged to have carried out a misappropriation
by improperly claiming reimbursement for his air travel.
The Baltimore Sun, in an article on the commission's administrative
costs published on July 7, 2002, reported on
Sher's air travel expenses.
The newspaper claimed that commission financial records showed that
in 1999 Sher spent $136,563 in travel
expenses, mostly for travel to Europe. "Sher's first-class or business-class
airfare to Rome, Berlin and other
cities often totaled $5,000 or more per trip," the article stated.
The insurance commission was formed in 1998 by survivor organizations,
state insurance commissioners,
representatives of Jewish groups and the Israeli government and European
insurance companies including
Germany's Allianz, France's Axa, Italy's Generali and Switzerland's Winterthur
and Zurich. Funded by the
companies, the commission seeks to resolve and pay claims by survivors
and heirs of Nazi victims who
contend companies refused to pay their families' life insurance policies.
One member of the insurance commission, Roman Kent, a Holocaust survivor
and treasurer of the Conference
on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, told the Forward that he had
no prior knowledge of the existence
or content of the internal commission document. Upon hearing about the
document Kent said, "if full restitution
was made and [Neal Sher] resigned, I think that should be the end of the
story."
An Israeli representative on the commission, Bobby Brown, told the Forward
that he too had no prior knowledge
of the letter's existence or content. He added: "If what the Forward says
is accurate about this matter, it appears
that all sides took this incident with a great deal of seriousness, and
the public's interest was protected and the
matter seems to have been handled properly."
"I know that in the past [Neal Sher's] work on behalf of tracking down
Nazis, expelling them from the United States
was heroic," Brown said. "His work on Waldheim was really an incredible
piece of investigation and for that he
will be remembered. As far as any improprieties that he's accused of, I
have no information of this."
Sher did not return phone calls seeking comment. Several other commission
members contacted by the Forward
declined to comment for the record.
The commission had come under fire from some members of Congress and
Holocaust survivor advocates for
spending excessively while delivering little compensation. As of July 2002,
operating expenses totaled $40 million,
while only $18 million in payments had been offered to claimants, according
to commission officials.
Source:
http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.11.01/news1.html
May 12, 1998
The Toronto Sun
Editorial/Opinion, Pg. 15
By Peter Worthington
A Consultant we don't need
[ . . . ]
Ever since Justice Minister Anne McLellan hired Sher, controversy has
seethed. For a dozen years, until 1994,
he headed the U.S. Justice Department's Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of
Special Investigations (OSI) which has
a record of being over-zealous (to put it mildly) in prosecuting those
it thinks are war criminals.
On occasion, the OSI has been condemned by U.S. courts (and upheld on
appeal) for perpetrating "fraud on the
court." [ . . . ]
It turned out that as far back as 1978 (before Sher was in charge) the
OSI had known the real Ivan the Terrible
was Ivan Marchenko. Prior to that, and also before Sher's time, one
Frank Walus was falsely convicted of being
a war criminal when, in fact, he was a 17-year-old farm boy. It ruined
his life.