New York Daily News – A Brooklyn rabbi convicted of extorting $4 million from a hedge fund was sentenced Friday to four years in prison. Milton Balkany, 64, who headed a religious day school for girls in Borough Park, faced up to nine years in prison, but Manhattan Federal Court Judge Denise Cote said she took into account the rabbi’s good deeds.
A lower sentence “would be appropriate based on a lifetime of good works and generosity for those in need and people who are the forgotten of society, the most unfortunate among us,” Cote said, citing 87 letters written on Balkany’s behalf.
