TRENTON, N.J. – Three New York men who tried to coerce a Jewish man into giving his wife a religious divorce have been sentenced in New Jersey.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said Thursday that Brooklyn resident Avrohom Goldstein was sentenced to 45 months. Monsey resident Ariel Potash got a 14-month sentence. Brooklyn resident Sholom Schuchat was sentenced to time served.
The men had pleaded guilty to crossing state lines to commit extortion. They were arrested in 2013 with seven others in an undercover sting.
Jewish law mandates that a husband present his wife with a document known as a get to make divorce official.
Prosecutors say the team used handcuffs, electric cattle prods and other brutal methods to torture men into granting gets.
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