La Jolla rabbi placed on three years probation

A La Jolla rabbi was placed on three years probation on June 10 and ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution in a scheme to defraud Qualcomm’s corporate matching program.

“What I did was wrong,” said Yehuda Hadjadj, of La Jolla, to U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Bashant.

“I will not do it again,” said Hadjadj to the judge.

Hadjadj, 47, is the former rabbi director of Chabad at the UC San Diego, and he directed donors who wanted a tax write-off for contributing to Chabad to make their donations to Friendship Circle.

Friendship Circle was operated by another rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, 58, who is serving 14 months in federal prison for a similar scheme involving his own temple in Poway.

Hadjadj was named director of the Chabad House at UC San Diego in 2005 and the organization provided a variety of social, educational, and culture programming for Jewish students. He lost his job because of this case. He counseled and taught students.

Goldstein attracted national attention in 2019 when a 19-year-old gunman shot four people including Goldstein, whose index finger was shot off. Lori Kaye, 60, was killed and two others were wounded. The gunman pleaded guilty and is serving a life term in prison without parole.

The $15,000 will go to Qualcomm’s corporate division, which is a Fortune 500 telecommunications company based in San Diego. Three Qualcomm employees made checks out to Friendship Circle because Qualcomm excluded religious groups from its eligible donation recipients.

Qualcomm contributed $15,000 to Friendship Circle, not realizing it was a sham donation. Then Hadjadj refunded the Qualcomm workers their money and they got to declare it on their taxes as a religious donation.

Both the U.S. Attorney’s office and Eugene Iredale, Hadjadj’s attorney, recommended the sentence of three years probation. Hadjadj received credit for one day previously spent in jail following his arrest.

Hadjadj is the 10th person prosecuted in the series of cases involving sham donations that were connected in some way to Goldstein, according to the U.S. Attorney.

Hadjadj was a chaplain at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, but he lost that position due to his felony conviction. He pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to defraud Qualcomm.

Hadjadj will go to work in Florida as some type of property manager, Iredale said. Hadjadj married in 1999 and he and his wife had nine children, two of whom are now adults, according to records.

The rabbi has shared the story of his misconduct to seven classes that serve as “a cautionary tale” that helps to deter others who may be tempted to do the same thing, according to court documents.

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