Divorce coercion defendant sentenced to four years

One of 10 defendants charged with a role in a scheme to strongarm a religious divorce out of a reluctant Jewish husband is sentenced to 48 months in prison.

In a Trenton federal courtroom, Moshe Goldstein, 32, of Brooklyn, was given his term by Judge Freda L. Wolfson, according to information from the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

Goldstein was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty to a count of traveling in interstate commerce to commit extortion.

The investigation also embroiled Rabbis Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood, and Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey, New York.

Goldstein's brother Avrohom Goldstein, 36; his father Jay Goldstein, 61; David Hellman, 33; Simcha Bulmash, 32, Binyamin Stimler, 40, and Sholom Shuchat, 31, all of Brooklyn; and Ariel Potash, 42, of Monsey, were also charged in the probe that authorities said centered around obtaining a "get."

The document, according to Jewish law, must be presented by a husband to a wife to effect a divorce.

According to authorities, Moshe Goldstein admitted gathering with the others and someone who claimed to be the husband's brother-in-law - in actuality an undercover FBI agent - in an Edison warehouse on October 9, 2013. By his account, they discussed a plan to "confine, restrain and threaten the victim," investigators said.

Moshe Goldstein also admitted accompanying several people to a Brooklyn residence on August 22, 2011, where another unwilling husband and his roommate were bound, attacked and injured for the same purpose.

Avrohom Goldstein, Hellman, Bulmash, Potash and Shuchat variously face sentencing Tuesday and Friday, each on one count of traveling in interstate commerce to commit extortion.

Rabbi Epstein, Jay Goldstein and Stimler were convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping in April of this year. Their sentencings are scheduled for December 15 and 16.