MANHATTAN, NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) – A man of New Square, New York, pleaded guilty for his role in a long-running scheme to defraud a number of federal and state programs of tens of millions of dollars, U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara announced on Monday.

Avrum David Friesel, 57, fled form the United States to Israel in 1997, prior to the unsealing of the original indictment. Friesel then moved to the United Kingdom until his arrest in London in 2008. He was extradited to the U.S. in August 2009.

Friesel and six others were charged with having defrauded several federal and state grant, loan and subsidy programs, for the benefit of themselves and other residents of the Village of New Square, an incorporated village in Rockland County. They created entities through which federal and state funds could be obtained. They submitted fraudulent documentation to establish the eligibility of New Square residents to benefit from these programs. Friesel and his co-conspirators concealed the fraud by using false names and nominee bank accounts.

The fraud conspiracy defrauded the Pell Grant program, a Small Business Administration program, the Section 8 rental subsidy program, the Social security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

Friesel faces a maximum prison term of five years and has agreed to pay $11.6 million in restitution. His sentence is scheduled on June 15.

Chaim Berger, the leader of the scheme, was arrested in Israel and extradited to the U.S.; he was sentenced to 72 months in prison. Other co-defendants, Kalmen Stern, David Goldstein, Jacob Elbaum, and Benjamin Berger, received sentences of between 30 and 78 months’ imprisonment. Nathan Adler, the last defendant, is still at large.