<P> In January 2014, David Cohen, former Met Council Executive Director, and Herbert Friedman, Chief Financial Officer, were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of grand larceny, money laundering, and conspiracy . William Rapfogel, former Met Council CEO, was arrested four months earlier . They were accused of receiving $7 million in kickbacks over 21 years from the Met Council's insurance broker Joseph Ross . According to court papers, Ross said that Rapfogel used some of his share of the kickback cash to make contributions to political campaigns and political organizations, and Friedman helped transfer some of that cash . Cohen, Friedman, Rapfogel and Ross were all sentenced to prison, and the Met Council was awarded nearly $9 million in restitution . </P> <P> According to The New York Times, one of the strong supporters of the Met Council was Assembly Speaker Silver, who helped steer millions of dollars to the organization . Rapfogel's wife, Judy, was Silver's chief of staff . </P> <P> To ensure that this never happens again, in 2015 the Met Council hired a former federal prosecutor as their Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel . </P> <P> One of New York's highest - profile Jewish leaders, Councilman David Greenfield, announced in July of 2017 that he would not run for re-election in order to assume the leadership of the Met Council and restore its role as the central Jewish charity in New York . Greenfield joined the organization as CEO on January 1, 2018 and has already instituted new initiatives including a new digital food pantry initiative to serve the more than 200,000 New Yorkers that rely on Met Council's food distribution network . After Greenfield joined, the UJA - Federation announced that they were partnering with the Met Council on their newly announced $35 million initiative to combat poverty . </P>

Metropolitan new york coordinating council on jewish poverty