United States v. Belgorodskaya

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. (Conference) was a not-for-profit organization that screened applicants and administered funds the German government made available for Jewish Holocaust victims. Over a period of 16 years, fraudulent applications containing altered identification documents and false stories of persecution were submitted, including by many Conference employees. The fraudulent scheme cost the German government $57 million. For four years, Raisa Belgorodskaya (defendant) collected and gave passports and birth certificates to a Conference employee who altered the documents to make the applicants eligible for reparations. Belgorodskaya received $300 for each fraudulent application. Belgorodskaya also submitted her own fraudulent application falsely stating that she had lived in a Ukrainian ghetto, arranged for her children to receive two payments, and made two calls to the Conference employee responsible for the investigation threatening the employee and his daughter. Belgorodskaya pleaded guilty to mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and witness tampering. Belgorodskaya’s counsel informed the court of Belgorodskaya’s current age and medical condition and submitted records from two of her doctors. Belgorodskaya’s counsel did not address the presentence report’s statement that Belgorodskaya had obtained a college degree in bookkeeping when in fact she had completed four years at the university after seven years of grade school. At sentencing, the court stated that it had taken Belgorodskaya’s health into account, but Belgorodskaya’s long-term involvement in the fraudulent scheme and the threats she made required a meaningful penalty involving prison. The court imposed a six-month prison sentence. Belgorodskaya petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus to vacate, set aside, or correct her sentence, claiming that her counsel failed to adequately investigate and present her mental and physical health and to correct the presentence report’s description of her education.