Widow's suit says she gave $18,000 for a $2,000 ark
By Missy Diaz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
October 21, 2006
When Loretta Miller's husband of more than 26 years died in October 2003, her rabbi suggested she donate an ark -- a sacred chest to house the Torah -- in his memory.
Miller has sued Rabbi Mendy Muskal of the Chabad Lubavitch in Wellington and claims his family used the $18,000 she donated to boost their lifestyle, take a family trip to Israel and deliver an ark that cost only $2,000.
Sometime before the scheduled October 2004 unveiling of the ark memorializing Jordan Miller, his widow said in an interview, she learned she had been "duped." While at the Muskals' home, Loretta Miller said, the rabbi took her into his garage and showed her a wood cabinet with mahogany veneer on top of plywood.
"It looked like somebody did it as a hobby and it just looked horrible," she said. "It looked like an armoire."
Muskal denies all of Miller's allegations and says he's confident a court will agree he did nothing wrong.
"We'll be proven to be meritorious in this," he said, adding that donations are not spent on a dollar-for-dollar basis. "We need those funds for operating and programming. That's how we're able to provide half a dozen classes a week for free."
On the advice of his attorney, Muskal declined to comment on the cost of the ark or who built it.
The suit, filed in August, names Muskal, 38, his wife, the synagogue and its advisory board members.
The Muskals, Miller says, told her that the cost of a customized ark, including shipping, would be $18,000. An expert in New York would make it, Miller said she was told, and she was promised three designs from which she could choose. She wrote the check and said she specifically designated the funds for the ark, nothing else.
Miller says the Muskals' lifestyle changed for the better soon after she delivered the check.
"He didn't have any money before I gave him the $18,000," she said. "He always gave chicken legs for dinners and suddenly he's giving chicken breasts and putting better wine on [his] table than he normally has. He became very wealthy on my money."
Time passed, she said, and she heard nothing but excuses about the ark. She was shocked when she learned the Muskals and their five children -- they now have six -- had taken a trip to Israel in June 2004, staying for two months.
Mendy Muskal acknowledges the trip, but said that although his family stayed for two months, he was there only 10 days. Miller alleges the Muskals vacationed on the ark money.
She questions how they afforded the international flights when about the same time, a Palm Beach County judge had ordered Mendy Muskal to pay $12,945 to MBNA America Bank for defaulting on his debt, court records show. The judgment still hasn't been satisfied and the case against Muskal was re-opened in 2005, records show.
Muskal declined to comment on that suit, saying it's "a personal matter."
When Miller first laid eyes on the ark in Muskal's garage, she said the rabbi told her his Israeli neighbor, who woodworks as a hobby, built it for $2,000. She said she immediately told Muskal she wanted her money back, to which he allegedly replied: "I'm not going to let my children starve because you want your money back."
At the Oct. 21, 2004, unveiling, Miller claims the ark was still not completed.
"It was stained, that was about it," she said. "He didn't have a curtain on it, he didn't have my husband's name on it and it looked like it needed work. I was supposed to pick out a design and he picked it out. It's not what I ordered. I ordered an $18,000 ark and got a $2,000 ark."
Muskal disputes Miller's allegations, saying she, along with others at the service, "oohed and aahed" at the ark's beauty.
He also adamantly denies the ark was unfinished and presented the South Florida Sun-Sentinel with photographs of the ark he said were taken at the 2004 High Holiday services, underscoring his assertion. He acknowledges the curtain was unfinished but said 2004's active hurricane season caused the delay.
In her lawsuit, Miller also said she was provided a receipt containing the synagogue's Tax ID number, which she planned to use to write off the $18,000 as a deduction on her taxes. But according to the state Division of Corporations, the synagogue's nonprofit status was dissolved from sometime in 2002 until May 2005.
Muskal blamed the dissolution on a "clerical error," explaining that he neglected to file the necessary paperwork.
"The moment we found out about it we took care of it," he said.
Miller reported what she found to the IRS, which she says informed her that "his receipts are worth nothing."
"They said I better not present those receipts or I would be audited," Miller said.
When an organization loses its corporate status, it also loses a shield of protection from liability, according to Palm Beach tax attorney David Halpen.
"The directors, the rabbi and the people who were in charge of the synagogue are the ones who are most at risk if a court agrees that the synagogue was not a valid corporation," he said. "The individual donors can go after the synagogue and the IRS can also go after the synagogue."
In her lawsuit, Miller is seeking $16,000, plus $3,000 for pain and suffering as well as court costs and interest.
"He preyed on my goodness, my grief, my charity," she said. "He and his wife were like a vulture that came down and went after me."
The rabbi said he has worked seven years to build his synagogue from a few families to more than 100 and he hopes Miller's accusations won't affect their good works.
"It's so easy to destroy, yet so difficult to build," he said.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Missy Diaz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
October 21, 2006
When Loretta Miller's husband of more than 26 years died in October 2003, her rabbi suggested she donate an ark -- a sacred chest to house the Torah -- in his memory.
Miller has sued Rabbi Mendy Muskal of the Chabad Lubavitch in Wellington and claims his family used the $18,000 she donated to boost their lifestyle, take a family trip to Israel and deliver an ark that cost only $2,000.
Sometime before the scheduled October 2004 unveiling of the ark memorializing Jordan Miller, his widow said in an interview, she learned she had been "duped." While at the Muskals' home, Loretta Miller said, the rabbi took her into his garage and showed her a wood cabinet with mahogany veneer on top of plywood.
"It looked like somebody did it as a hobby and it just looked horrible," she said. "It looked like an armoire."
Muskal denies all of Miller's allegations and says he's confident a court will agree he did nothing wrong.
"We'll be proven to be meritorious in this," he said, adding that donations are not spent on a dollar-for-dollar basis. "We need those funds for operating and programming. That's how we're able to provide half a dozen classes a week for free."
On the advice of his attorney, Muskal declined to comment on the cost of the ark or who built it.
The suit, filed in August, names Muskal, 38, his wife, the synagogue and its advisory board members.
The Muskals, Miller says, told her that the cost of a customized ark, including shipping, would be $18,000. An expert in New York would make it, Miller said she was told, and she was promised three designs from which she could choose. She wrote the check and said she specifically designated the funds for the ark, nothing else.
Miller says the Muskals' lifestyle changed for the better soon after she delivered the check.
"He didn't have any money before I gave him the $18,000," she said. "He always gave chicken legs for dinners and suddenly he's giving chicken breasts and putting better wine on [his] table than he normally has. He became very wealthy on my money."
Time passed, she said, and she heard nothing but excuses about the ark. She was shocked when she learned the Muskals and their five children -- they now have six -- had taken a trip to Israel in June 2004, staying for two months.
Mendy Muskal acknowledges the trip, but said that although his family stayed for two months, he was there only 10 days. Miller alleges the Muskals vacationed on the ark money.
She questions how they afforded the international flights when about the same time, a Palm Beach County judge had ordered Mendy Muskal to pay $12,945 to MBNA America Bank for defaulting on his debt, court records show. The judgment still hasn't been satisfied and the case against Muskal was re-opened in 2005, records show.
Muskal declined to comment on that suit, saying it's "a personal matter."
When Miller first laid eyes on the ark in Muskal's garage, she said the rabbi told her his Israeli neighbor, who woodworks as a hobby, built it for $2,000. She said she immediately told Muskal she wanted her money back, to which he allegedly replied: "I'm not going to let my children starve because you want your money back."
At the Oct. 21, 2004, unveiling, Miller claims the ark was still not completed.
"It was stained, that was about it," she said. "He didn't have a curtain on it, he didn't have my husband's name on it and it looked like it needed work. I was supposed to pick out a design and he picked it out. It's not what I ordered. I ordered an $18,000 ark and got a $2,000 ark."
Muskal disputes Miller's allegations, saying she, along with others at the service, "oohed and aahed" at the ark's beauty.
He also adamantly denies the ark was unfinished and presented the South Florida Sun-Sentinel with photographs of the ark he said were taken at the 2004 High Holiday services, underscoring his assertion. He acknowledges the curtain was unfinished but said 2004's active hurricane season caused the delay.
In her lawsuit, Miller also said she was provided a receipt containing the synagogue's Tax ID number, which she planned to use to write off the $18,000 as a deduction on her taxes. But according to the state Division of Corporations, the synagogue's nonprofit status was dissolved from sometime in 2002 until May 2005.
Muskal blamed the dissolution on a "clerical error," explaining that he neglected to file the necessary paperwork.
"The moment we found out about it we took care of it," he said.
Miller reported what she found to the IRS, which she says informed her that "his receipts are worth nothing."
"They said I better not present those receipts or I would be audited," Miller said.
When an organization loses its corporate status, it also loses a shield of protection from liability, according to Palm Beach tax attorney David Halpen.
"The directors, the rabbi and the people who were in charge of the synagogue are the ones who are most at risk if a court agrees that the synagogue was not a valid corporation," he said. "The individual donors can go after the synagogue and the IRS can also go after the synagogue."
In her lawsuit, Miller is seeking $16,000, plus $3,000 for pain and suffering as well as court costs and interest.
"He preyed on my goodness, my grief, my charity," she said. "He and his wife were like a vulture that came down and went after me."
The rabbi said he has worked seven years to build his synagogue from a few families to more than 100 and he hopes Miller's accusations won't affect their good works.
"It's so easy to destroy, yet so difficult to build," he said.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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